Kyrgyzstan dropped from 101st to 107th line in the Democracy Index, compiled by the British research center The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The republic scored 4.21 points in the new ranking and, like a year ago, was included in the category of countries with a hybrid regime.
The index is based on 60 key indicators grouped into five main categories that characterize the state of democracy within the state: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation, and political culture.
The republic got the highest scores in such categories as political participation (5.56 points), electoral process and pluralism (4.75) and civil liberties (4.71 points), and the lowest scores in the categories functioning of government (2.93) and political culture (3.13 points).
«In the Kyrgyz Republic a failed parliamentary election in October further exacerbated the steady erosion of democratic principles in the country. Despite being the only non-authoritarian state in Central Asia, the Kyrgyz Republic is now moving closer to authoritarianism and registered the steepest score decline in eastern Europe in 2020, replacing Bosnia and Hercegovina as the lowest-scoring country in the «hybrid regime» category,» authors of the ranking say.
Kazakhstan took the 128th place in the ranking, Uzbekistan — 155th, Tajikistan — 159th, Turkmenistan — 162nd. The Central African Republic, Congo and North Korea are at the bottom of the ranking with lowest scores.
Russia is ranked 124th and is included in the group of countries with an authoritarian regime.
Norway took the first place in the index. It is followed by Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Canada. The United States took 25th place and remained in the category of countries with «flawed democracy» due to political problems and storm of the Capitol.
In general, the overall level of democracy in the world in 2020 fell to 5.37 points (in 2019 — 5.44 points). This is the worst result since 2006. According to authors of the index, this result is mainly due to restrictions on personal and civil liberties imposed by the governments of the countries amid the coronavirus pandemic.
