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Hungary’s rating on the London-based EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit) think tank’s democracy index has declined further. Every year, the research center of the British weekly The Economist compiles its international ranking, which is regularly reviewed by the Hungarian press; In terms of democracy and the rule of law, Hungary is constantly showing a downward trend. This year’s analysis was particularly exciting, as the effects of the pandemic are also included in the result. As the analysis says,
Due to closures and epidemiological restrictions adopted by governments, by 2020, the vast majority of countries had severely violated civil rights.
Incidentally, the research covers 167 countries around the world, and the research center evaluated the actors for epidemiological limitations where:
- freedoms have been violated,
- Governments did not ensure the verifiability of the special legal regime introduced by the emergency,
- restricted freedom of expression.
Although it is difficult to show a democratic country where the epidemic has not brought a quasi-authoritarian turn in governance, the scores show that the British research center is tolerant of the phenomenon. Of the top ten points available on the Democracy Index, the world average was 5.37 points, which is not a big drop from last year’s 5.45 points. The analysis also cites France as an example, which, due to severe restrictions, has fallen into the category of so-called flawed democracy among countries with the highest level of full democracy. Norway obtained the most points with 9.81 points, followed by Iceland (9.37) and Sweden (9.26). And Taiwan has performed better this year, with the East Asian country gaining twenty places in one year. At the bottom of the list are North Korea (1.08), Congo (1.13) and the Central African Republic (1.32).
Hungary is a flawed democracy, with a score of 6.56 it ranks 56th on the list of 167 countries.
The Philippines, led by President Rodrigo Duterte, was one ahead of Hungary, but South Africa (7.05) and Brazil (6.92) also performed better.
In our region, we are ahead of Poland (6.85), Bulgaria (6.71) and Slovakia (6.97), which have been highly criticized on the political scene, but we have overtaken Croatia (6.5) and Romania (6.4).
However, based on the analysis, Hungary acted quite democratically in handling the epidemic, at least if we look at the annual breakdown we can conclude this. Compared to 2019, the country’s assessment dropped by seven centuries, from 6.63. According to previous data, Hungary could achieve this even if the government did not run the country with strict draconian restrictions. Between 2014 and 2015, for example, Hungary’s rating dropped a much lower 1.4 percentage points. The credibility of the list is also called into question by the fact that Hungary received the most points in 2006, the year of protests with tough police action. The EIU then obtained 7.53 points on the situation of democracy in Hungary.
Action against the epidemic showever, Hungarian researchers warn of its most serious consequences. THE last week a 24.hu wrote a Epidemic, vaccine, society at a professional conference titled:
In response to the crisis, state power is strengthened, resources are monopolized, state intervention is strengthened, and access to information is strictly controlled.
Among others, Antal Örkény, professor at the Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Social Sciences, made a presentation at the event, according to which the so-called crisis factor plays an important role in the tools of the Hungarian government. This first appeared in the 2008 global crisis and resolving it effectively was an important tool for electoral victory. The refugee crisis occurred in 2015, when apocalyptic conditions were built from a truly critical situation, and now it is making society unsafe by the coronavirus epidemic.
(Cover Image: A man enters the empty John F. Kennedy Airport on April 16, 2020. Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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