Global trends: Democracy in retreat
Populism, “creeping authoritarianism,” and “democratic backsliding” are some of the terms critics used to describe the present state of governance. They cite indicators such as the rampant extrajudicial killings, the President’s “delegitimizing of the opposition and silencing of dissent,” his strengthening of State surveillance capacities through purchase of surveillance equipment and attempts to introduce the ID system without public consultation.
But this decline in democratic participation is likewise happening all over the world today.
Two global surveys in 2019, Democracy Index 2019 by the Economist and one by Freedom House confirm this trend.
The latter reports a global decline in freedom for the 13th consecutive year while Democracy Index showed that the average global score had fallen down from 5.48 in 2018 to 5.44 in 2019.
Of 167 countries, only 22 are classified as “full democracies.” Fifty-four are “flawed democracies,” with the Philippines in this group. Thirty-seven are “hybrid democracies and 54 are “authoritarian regimes.”
The Philippines ranks 54 with an index of 6.64. Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark, and Canada lead the list, and North Korea is at the bottom.
“Full democracies” have basic political freedoms and civil liberties are respected. Media are independent and diverse; there exists an effective system of checks and balances; judiciary is independent and judicial decisions are enforced.
“Flawed democracies” have free and fair elections even if there are problems such as infringements on media freedom and problems of governance, an underdeveloped political culture or low levels of political participation.
Last year’s global index was the worst for the Philippines since 2006. It was also a year of democratic setbacks and global protests. Among the indicators are an emphasis on elite/expert governance rather than popular and participatory democracy, influence of unaccountable institutions, decision-making by politicians behind closed doors, widening gaps between political elites and national electorates, and decline in civil liberties including media freedom and freedom of speech.
The US and China likewise had fallen in the global ranking – the US from 17th place in 2010 to 25th in 2019, and China to a rank of 153rd, which was close to the bottom.
In the Freedom House survey, Scandinavian countries Norway, Sweden, and Finland topped the rest with each ranking 100, and classified as “Fully Free.” The Philippines ranked 59 or Partly Free.
The countries were evaluated on the basis of indicators such as “freedom of expression,” “rights given to immigrants and refugees,” political will in implementing “electoral reforms,” “democratic governance,” state of “digital authoritarianism” or Internet censorship, among others.
The Philippines and many countries in the Asia-Pacific region except Japan, New Zealand, and Australia failed to show evidence that they are making positive strides towards democratic participation. Even India, one of the old democracies had slipped to 51stslot or 10 places in the Democracy Index.
It is too soon to fully evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on national and local governance and on the state of democracy in the country. But what we now know is that it has exposed the wide and terrible income and social disparities in our society. It has likewise shown weaknesses such as lack of transparency and accountability. There were instances of infringement on our freedoms and civil liberties as well as lack of public and bottom-up participation. Much still needs to be done in implementing the constitutional guarantees of media freedom, freedom of expression, and human rights. Such as demonstrating the power of initiative, recall, and referendum or direct democracy which is mandated by the Constitution.