Mauritius, Africa's only “complete democracy”
Christina Vilbrin
Tue 02/20/2024 – 7:30 p.m.
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The country moves up one rank to 20th place
With an overall score of 8.14, Mauritius ranks 20th globally in the latest Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Democracy Index. The country, which gained one rank compared to the last edition, remains the only African country to be qualified as a “complete democracy”.
GOOD TO KNOW
The Economist Intelligence Unit is the research and analysis division of The Economist group. The EIU Democracy Index provides an overview of the state of democracy in 165 independent states and two territories. Scored on a scale of 0 to 10, the democracy index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture and civil liberties. Depending on the results obtained for a series of indicators in these categories, each country is classified into one of four regime types: “full democracy”, “imperfect democracy”, “hybrid regime” or “authoritarian regime”. The good news is that the number of countries classified as democratic has increased by two, reaching 74 in 2023. However, looking at other indicators, the year has not been good for democracy. The global average of the index fell to 5.23, from 5.29 in 2022.
