Democracy Index 2012 positions Belarus near China and Yemen

The Economist Intelligence Unit prepared yet another index, measuring the state of democracy in 167 countries.

Quite expectedly, Belarus is placed closer to the end of the list. According to the Economist, the latest report of the Democracy Index places Belarus on the 141^st place, close to China and Yemen. Belarus is also referred to as a country with an authoritarian regime.

The Index also detects a number of similarities between the authoritarian regimes in the CIS and in MENA. There is rampant corruption, small elites control the bulk of their nations’ assets, institutions have been corroded by the effects of minerals-based development, and governance and social provision are poor. The analysts of the Democracy Index exemplify their point with the Belarusan example, noting that the Belarusian regime depends on Russian subsidies.

Our neighbouring countries – Lithuania, Poland, Latvia and Russia occupy 42^nd, 44^th, 47^th and 122^nd places accordingly.

Reference:

The Democracy Index is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit that measures the state of democracy in 167 countries. The index is based on 60 indicators grouped in five different categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation, and political culture. The index categorizes countries on four regime types: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes. The index was first produced for 2006.

You can download the full text of the report here.