Democracy in South Korea is assessed to have declined slightly as the country dropped eight spots from a year earlier to come in 24th out of 167 countries in an annual global analysis.
According to a survey published on Wednesday by The Economist's analytic agency, the Economist Intelligence Unit(EIU), South Korea scored a weighted average of eight-point-03 out of ten points on its “Democracy Index 2022.”
The country's score managed to surpass eight points to be classified as a "full democracy" for the third consecutive year despite losing ground from last year, with the analysis blaming the partisan nature of politics in the country.
South Korea rose to the top group for the first time in five years in 2020 after scoring eight-point-01 points to rank 23rd, having previously fallen in the “flawed democracy” category, the second-highest ahead of “hybrid regime” and “authoritarian regime.”
North Korea ranked 165th, unchanged from a year earlier, with a score of one-point-08, while at the other end of the scale, Norway retained the top spot with a score of nine-point-81 points.
Since 2006, the EIU Democracy Index scores the democracy level of 165 states and two territories in five areas – the electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture.