Ukraine’s democratic indicators improved – IDEA

The International Research Center IDEA presented an annual report where the United States was included for the first time in the list of countries with incomplete democracies, while Ukraine was removed from this list due to improved democratic performance.

This is stated in the report of the IDEA (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance).

It is noted that this year's report of the IDEA Stockholm Center refers to regimes in 160 countries. Researchers have divided them into authoritarian regimes, countries with transitional (hybrid) regimes, incomplete democracies, and, ultimately, full-fledged democracies, which in turn are divided into weak, medium, and strong.

The United States was first classified as an "incomplete" democracy because of "significant violations" of civil rights that began in 2019. Nevertheless, researchers note that the United States falls into this category of "strong democracies" and has every chance to return to this list.

"A historic turning point came in 2020-2021 when former President Trump questioned the legitimacy of the election results in the United States," the report said.

Researchers also pointed to problems with freedom of assembly and demonstration in the summer of 2020, when protests over the murder of George Floyd by police spread across the country.

The report says the number of incomplete democracies has doubled this year. Besides the United States, the list includes EU countries such as Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia.

Instead, Ukraine was removed from the list of "incomplete" democracies this year after "the situation in the country has improved." Thus, Ukraine was included in the report as a "mid-range democracy." In particular, the report noted the positive impact of the introduction of transparent e-declarations.

At the same time, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Mali have been included in authoritarian regimes this year. In total, the report identified 47 authoritarian countries, including China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran; 20 transitional regimes, including Russia and Turkey, and 98 democracies are the lowest in recent years.

In 2021, researchers expect this trend to continue and democratic regimes to decline due to restrictions on civil liberties and the polarization of society in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.