Democracy in Europe: The Downward Trend

The intergovernmental organization IDEA measures the level of democracy in countries around the world since 1975. His latest Abbreviation for “Global Status of Democracy”. It confirms the trend of other studies such as the decline in democracy in the world and in Europe.

“By 2022, the number of long-standing and strong democracies such as Austria, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom will decline,” the report authors begin the section on Europe.

The biggest declines in 2022 took place in Russia, Belarus and Sweden, according to the index. For Sweden, the decline was particularly evident in the participation category (see fact box below).

Among the explanations cited by IDEA for the deterioration in Europe are the difficult economic situation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine would have a significant impact on regional and domestic dynamics in Europe for years to come,” the report’s authors write.

Sweden lags behind

The democracy index consists of four main categories: representation, rights, rule of law and participation. Among these, Denmark, Norway and Finland will top Europe in 2022. Sweden is the first to finish in seventh place (see graph at the bottom of the article).

The least democratic countries in Europe are Belarus, Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey. IDEA singles out these four countries as “clearly undemocratic” and that they are moving away from the rest of Europe on the level of democracy.

It peaked in 2012

According to IDEA the highest level of democracy in Europe was reached in 2012 and has been deteriorating almost every year. Since then, declines have occurred in 26 of the 45 European countries in the cluster. The biggest losses in the past decade have been in Turkey and Belarus. Sweden had the eighth biggest decline in Europe since 2012.

Among the EU countries, growth is worse in Poland and Hungary, which is also seen in other democracy surveys. IDEA pointed out in its report that measures taken by the EU to deal with the development of both member states have so far been “limited”.

“Despite the European Commission freezing billions of euros in funding to Hungary and Poland due to violations of rights and the rule of law, both countries have remained broadly unchanged in their direction, apart from some minor changes in approach,” it said.

Four countries saw no change between 2012 and 2022. The remaining 15 countries saw improvements in democracy, with Armenia, Kosovo and Ukraine at the top (see fact box below).