Most ASEAN countries are flawed democracies; the rest are authoritarian.

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Adi Ahdiat 03/02/2023 14:00 WIB

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According to the 2022 Democracy Index released by The Economist Intelligence Unit, the majority of ASEAN countries are classified as flawed democracies.

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Most ASEAN countries are flawed democracies; the rest are authoritarian.

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ASEAN Countries' Democracy Index (2022)

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According to the Democracy Index released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the majority of ASEAN member states have flawed democracies.

The EIU calculates the Democracy Index using five major indicators: electoral process and political pluralism, government functioning, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.

The EIU then classifies countries into four regime categories based on their index score:

* Index score > 8: Full democracy
* Index score > 6 to ? 8: Flawed democracy
* Index score > 4 to ? 6: Hybrid regime
* Index score ? 4: Authoritarian

Of the 11 ASEAN member states, none were considered to have implemented full democracy by 2022.

A majority, or 6 ASEAN countries, fall into the flawed democracy category: Malaysia, Timor-Leste, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore.

The other 4 countries are categorized as authoritarian: Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar, with scores as shown in the graph.

The remaining country, Brunei Darussalam, is not included in the EIU index.

According to the EIU's explanation, countries classified as flawed democracies generally have free and fair electoral systems and respect basic civil liberties.

However, in flawed democracies, press freedom tends to be low. The political culture tends to be anti-critical, citizen political participation is weak, and government performance is suboptimal.

Authoritarian countries, on the other hand, are usually ruled by dictators, governments with absolute power.

Authoritarian states lack political pluralism, civil liberties are severely restricted, the media is usually owned by the ruling regime, there is widespread repression or censorship of criticism of the government, and the judiciary is not independent.

In 2022, Indonesia achieved a Democracy Index score of 6.71, unchanged from the previous year. Although still categorized as flawed, Indonesia's democracy score is the fourth highest in ASEAN, relatively good compared to neighboring countries.

Editor : Adi Ahdiat

"Disclosure: This is an AI-generated translation of the original article. We strive for accuracy, but please note that automated translations may contain errors or slight inconsistencies."