The ranking of the most democratic countries in the world

What are the most democratic countries in the world? In a historical moment like this, where we are witnessing the rise of political leaders who increasingly resemble the real masters of the various states, this question is more relevant than ever.
The Economist tried to give an answer to this question which is very similar to a charade.
In fact, every year the political-economic information weekly publishes a sort of ranking drawn up by the Economist Intelligence Unit – EUI: this is the analysis and investigation section of The Economist group.
Thus last year the Democracy Index 2022 was published, which photographed the state of democracy at a global level by evaluating 167 countries based on five parameters: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties.
Italy is in 34th place in this ranking, behind all the other big Europeans, so much so that it has been pigeonholed into the category of "imperfect democracies".
read also Press freedom ranking, where is Italy? Spoiler: very low The ranking of the most democratic countries According to the Democracy Index drawn up by the Economist, this is the ranking of the 20 most democratic countries in the world for 2022.
Below the table you can consult the complete report in pdf format .
PositionCountryScore 1 Norway 9.81 2 New Zealand 9.61 3 Iceland 9.52 4 Sweden 9.39 5 Finland 9.29 6 Denmark 9.28 7 Switzerland 9.14 8 Ireland 9.13 9 Netherlands 9.00 10 Taiwan 8.99 11 Uruguay 8.91 12 Canada 8.88 13 Luxembourg 8.81 14 Germany 8.80 14 Germany 8.80 15 Australia 8.71 16 Japan 8.33 17 Costa Rica 8.29 18 UK 8.28 19 Chile 8.22 20 Austria 8.20 Norway would thus confirm itself as the most democratic country in the world, preceding New Zealand and Iceland which jumped two positions to conquer the lowest step of the podium.
Taiwan, on the other hand, would be the most democratic state in Asia, with Uruguay which can boast of the title with regards to South America.
Italy is in 34th place in this ranking – among those that have been defined as "imperfect democracies" -, with a total score of 7.69.
Compared to the previous year, the Belpaese would have lost three positions in this special ranking.
In detail, Italy was judged very badly (6.79) for the functioning of the government, but even the 7.35 obtained for civil liberties certainly does not do us credit.
The least democratic country in the world, however, would be Afghanistan with a score of 0.32, with the Taliban capable of doing worse than Myanmar (0.74) and North Korea (1.08).
The least democratic European country according to the Economist, however, would be Belarus, while Saudi Arabia's 150th place reflects this with a score of 2.08, even if in our country there are those who speak of a "Renaissance" in Riyadh.
The state of democracy around the world According to the Economist's analysis, the global score of 5.29 out of ten, up just 0.01 from the previous year, represents a stagnation (and not a reversal) of the democratic recession began in 2016.
In line with the overall theme of inertia and stagnation, there are only five regime changes category in the 2022 Democracy Index, three positive and two negative.
Chile, France and Spain return to the category of "full democracies", i.e.
"full democracy", mainly thanks to a reversal of the governments on the measures implemented during the pandemic that had violated the freedoms of citizens in 2020- 21.
Papua New Guinea and Peru have been downgraded, both from a “flawed democracy” classification to that of a “hybrid regime”.
As a consequence of these changes, the number of "full democracies" goes from 21 in 2021 to 24 in 2022, while the number of "imperfect democracies" drops from 53 to 48 and that of "hybrid regimes" rises from 34 to 36.
The number of "authoritarian regimes" remains unchanged at 59.