"Blow to Adversarial Party Politics Democracy"
[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] South Korea's democracy maturity rating has dropped from 16th to 24th place. The evaluation of being a full democracy was barely maintained.
According to the 'Democracy Index 2022' released on the 1st (local time) by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), an economic analysis institute affiliated with the British weekly magazine The Economist, South Korea ranked among 167 countries worldwide. South Korea scored 8.03 points in total evaluation, allowing it to be classified as a full democracy country by a narrow margin.
Traffic lights in front of the National Assembly building are all showing red./Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@
A score above 8 points is classified as a full democracy, above 6 and up to 8 points as a 'flawed democracy', above 4 and up to 6 points as a 'hybrid regime', and below 4 points as an 'authoritarian regime'.
South Korea entered the full democracy category in 2020 (23rd place) with 8.01 points and ranked 16th in 2021 with 8.16 points.
In this evaluation, South Korea's scores in areas such as civil liberties rose, but there was a significant decline in political culture and other categories, causing the overall ranking to fall.
The EIU assessed South Korea, along with Hong Kong, as having "experienced democratic backsliding," stating, "Years of confrontational party politics have damaged South Korean democracy. Politics interpreted in terms of good and evil has reduced the space for consensus-building and compromise," diagnosing that "this has paralyzed policy-making." Furthermore, it pointed out, "Politicians focused their political energy on defeating rival politicians," and "the confrontational political landscape, rather than working to find common ground and improve citizens' lives, negatively impacted the democracy index, leading citizens to feel disillusioned with democracy and lose trust in politicians."
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