Taiwan has placed fifth in Asia in The Economist’s latest global democracy index, released Wednesday.
The index evaluates the governments of 167 different countries and territories based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation, and political culture. Based on their scores on 60 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.
In the Asian region, Taiwan placed behind New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, and Japan. Of these, New Zealand and Australia were classified as full democracies, while South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan were classified as flawed democracies.
In addition to classifying governments, the index also includes a score, with ten being the most democratic. Taiwan has received a score of 7.73 on the index for three consecutive years. In the global rankings, Taiwan moved a notch up from last year to take 31st place.