Democracy relapsed

Indicators of democracy in Lebanon recoil from last year: report

The 2011 Democracy index ranked Lebanon in 94th place among 167 countries and territories worldwide. The report, published in December by the Economist Intelligence Unit, placed the country in second place among 20 Arab countries. Tunisia was ranked in first place among the Arab countries.

On the 2010 index, Lebanon came in 86th place globally and in first place among Arab countries.

Lebanon scored 5.32 points in the 2011 index, below the global average of 5.55, but above the Arab average of 3.49 points. The country’s score was 5.82 points in the 2010 survey.

The index measures 60 indicators grouped in five categories. Each category is rated on a scale from zero to 10 (where zero is the lowest democracy score). The survey placed countries in five categories of political freedoms: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes.

The index placed Lebanon in the ‘Hybrid Regimes’ category, alongside three other Arab political systems. The rest of the Arab countries were classified as having ‘Authoritarian’ regimes.

On the Political Participation sub-index Lebanon tied with the United States, Finland, and South Korea. On the Political Culture sub-index it tied with the UAE and Turkey, and came behind Egypt and Syria.

The report said that despite the pro-democracy movement in the region and improvement in the region's average democracy score, the MENA region is still seen as the most repressive region in the world.