LONDON – Montenegro improved its democracy in 2023, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina saw no changes, while Albania and North Macedonia declined, according to Democracy Index 2023 released last week by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
On a scale from 0 to 10, Montenegro scored 6.67, the best score in the Western Balkans. It is followed by Serbia which is at 6.33, Albania at 6.28, North Macedonia at 6.03, and Bosnia and Herzegovina at 5.0. Kosovo is not included in the Index.
To qualify for a “full democracy”, a country must have a score between 8 and 10, while a score between 6 and 8 indicates a “flawed democracy”. Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, and North Macedonia are “flawed democracies”, while Bosnia and Herzegovina is a “hybrid regime”, according to the classification of the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Accordingly, Montenegro is ranked 52nd in the world, advancing 9 places compared to 2022. Serbia is ranked 64th, which is also a 4-place improvement, though its overall score did not change, meaning that the movement was caused by the changes in other countries’ scores.
Albania is ranked 66th in the world, two places behind Serbia, while North Macedonia is sharing the 72nd place with Papua New Guinea. Bosnia and Herzegovina is 94th in the world in terms of its democracy index.
Montenegro increased its score by 0.22, making it one of the “best performers” in 2023, alongside Benin, Tanzania, Angola and Malta, the Index shows.
Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina saw no changes in their scores compared to 2022.
Meanwhile, Albania lost 0.13 points compared to 2022, while North Macedonia scored a slightly lower decline of 0.07.
The report does not provide individual explanations for countries’ score changes.
The Democracy Index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.
The global average index score fell to 5.23, down from 5.29 in 2022. This is in keeping with a general trend of regression and stagnation in recent years, and it marks a new low since the index began in 2006.
“According to our measure of democracy, almost half of the world’s population live in a democracy of some sort (45.4%). Only 7.8% reside in a “full democracy”, down from 8.9% in 2015; this percentage fell after the US was demoted from a “full democracy” to a “flawed democracy” in 2016. More than one-third of the world’s population live under authoritarian rule (39.4%), a share that has been creeping up in recent years”, the report reads.