The Democracy Index (the “Index"), published annually by the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU), is a report that provides a broad overview of the state of democracy across 167 countries and territories. Bound in its drive to bring forth deep insight into World economic and political developments, this year’s index, released on 10 February 2022, shows declining resilience across most regions, and sets the record for the worst global score since the index was first produced in 2006 (2021: 5.28).

This global score is reflective of the adverse effects of the ongoing pandemic, where civil liberties across democracies and authoritarian regimes alike are being continuously threatened. Indeed, the imposition of lockdowns and travel restrictions, as well as increasingly common obligation to show proof of vaccination to participate in public life have led to a subtle shift in power in favour of states across the World.

Despite the less than favourable findings, Mauritius has fared well in the Index with an improved ranking at the 19^th spot (2020: 20^th) and a score of 8.08. The country thus maintains its position as the only Full Democracy on the African continent.

The Index takes into consideration five essential criteria to analyse the democracy level across the countries and territories - electoral process and pluralism, functioning of the government, political participation, political culture and civil liberties – and we note that Mauritius has done particularly well for the electoral process section, where it scored 9.17 out of 10.

Read the full report titled ‘The China challenge’ from the EIU here where the research division dedicates a section of the report to China’s exceptional economic success and its take on democracy.