6 March 2023: A new report by the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden has revealed that by the end of 2022. The report claims that the progress made in global democracy over the past 35 years has been wiped out, with more closed autocracies than liberal democracies in the world today.

The report lists 42 countries as “autocratising” at the end of 2022. The report lists characteristics of autocratising countries, including increased media censorship and repression of civil society, decreased academic and cultural freedom, and freedom of discussion.

The report classified India as an “electoral autocracy,” and Freedom House listed India as “partly free.” The Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance also classified India as a backsliding democracy and a “major decliner” in its Global State of Democracy (GSoD) report. The report concedes that the process of autocratization has “slowed down considerably or stalled” in India, after they turned into autocracies.

The V-Dem report also extends its analysis to indicators that bolster autocratization. It says that disinformation, polarization, and autocratization reinforce each other. It flags those countries that increased their democracy scores as countries that were able to check disinformation and polarization.

India classified among autocratising countries that have seen the “most dramatic” disinformation campaigns.

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Source:  The Wire

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