An annual report has ranked Taiwan as the number one democracy in Asia. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index released its 2022 report on Wednesday, ranking the democracies of 167 countries.
The index creates a composite score for each country on a scale of 1-10 by rating five categories, including their political process and civil liberties. The report says half of the world’s population lives in a democratic country. It also says the world average democracy score did not improve in 2022, signaling democratic stagnation.
Taiwan’s democracy scored a 9 in 2022, the highest score in Asia and the tenth highest in the world. It is also the highest-ranked democracy outside of Europe.
The report says the largest democratic decline last year was in Russia. The country’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent repression of opposition to the war are key factors contributing to its lower score.
But some critics say the index contains many biases, value judgements, and hidden agendas. That’s because the index is created through questionnaires sent to anonymous academics, whose answers are later turned into numeric scores.