By John Lee.
Iraq has fallen to another new low in the Economist Intelligence Unit's annual Democracy Index.
Falling four places to 128th out of 167 countries, Iraq is classified as "authoritarian", and scores lower than countries such as Jordan, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Zimbabwe.
The score is Iraq's lowest since the Index was created in 2006, and marks its 6th consecutive fall since 2017.
The report finds:
"Popular attitudes towards democracy continued to deteriorate in Iraq, with surveys showing a growing percentage of the population believing that the country's democratic government has failed to maintain law and order.
"Many Iraqis associate the country's weak economic performance with its transition to a democratic system following the US-led invasion in the early 2000s. The oil-producing country's fiscal and economic performance has improved in recent years as oil prices have spiked.
"However, chronic mismanagement at all levels of government, fuelled by corruption and institutional weaknesses, alongside persistent insecurity, has hindered policymaking. The non-oil economy remains dysfunctional and unproductive."
The Democracy Index provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.
Based on its scores on a range of indicators within these categories, each country is then classified as one of four types of regime: "full democracy", "flawed democracy", "hybrid regime" or "authoritarian regime".
The full report can be downloaded here.
(Source: EIU)
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