The Freedom House 2021 Report was released recently which looks into the democratic state of the world in the previous year (2020) and assigns scores related to various factors that determines if a country is politically and democratically “not free”, “partly free”, or “free”. Naturally you want your country to be free as that means democracy is working as generally intended, many countries that are partly free will often include developing democracies but can also include originally free democracies in decline – which is bad. And then of course we don’t want to see any countries in the Not Free category as that means, well, they’re purposeful dictatorships or that there is mass corruption and political intimidation and various severe institutional issues within a country attempting to be a free Democracy, but is being severely undermined by obscure powerful figures, with in-place institutions failing to keep them in check, basically such systems are fundamentally flawed for numerous reasons.
Unfortunately the Freedom House reports in recent years have been doom and gloom and highlighting the decline of democratic freedoms in many countries around the world, and unfortunately the 2021 report (on 2020) is no different, with the coronavirus pandemic having also not helped the situation and made such issues even worse as freedoms can be severely undermined in a overproportionate response to the virus – in such a way where it’s clearly being used as an excuse to quash opposition and opponents, rather than reasonable restrictions that are actually proportionate and without ulterior motives.
So, let’s look into some of the highlights of the Freedom House 2021 Report
India Declines to Partly Free
One of the first major highlights of the report is India’s democratic freedoms declining from “free” to “partly free” which is devastating for a country referred to as the “world’s largest democracy”. But to those who have kept track of internal politics of India over the past few years it comes at little surprise, as nationalism clashes with Democracy.
The main criticisms in the report include continuing crackdowns on critics in 2020 by Prime Minister Modi’s Government aided by state-level allies (India is organised as a federation of States under a national Government). India’s response to COVID-19 was also criticized in particular a poorly managed and planned lockdown that dangerously displaced millions of migrant workers.
Furthermore, Hindu nationalism in the ruling Government has been called out for its encouragement and scapegoating of Muslims. More specifically they were unfairly blamed for spread of the coronavirus and became at-risk from attacks by nationalist vigilante mobs. Ultimately the report condemns Modi of failing to be a serving champion of democratic practice and is in-fact driving his country towards authoritarianism.
Violent crackdowns on protests against Government legislation and arrests of journalists, such as those reporting on the Government’s handling of the pandemic, and Nationalist-related interference in the country’s judiciary, have also been highlighted as reasons for their drop to Partly Free.
Calling out the State of US Democracy
Although Freedom House still considers the US to be Free it did call out a number of things (under Donald Trump) that took place in 2020/21. It called US Democracy in its current state to be precarious, its phrasing inferring that it is full of danger and uncertainty, with highlighted factors involving the storming of the Capitol by pro-Trump supporters that disrupted the Electoral College certification process and Trump’s refusal to concede the election to Joe Biden and accept the results, and his numerous attempts to overturn the results. Furthermore, on the storming of the Capitol the report says such was incited by then President Donald Trump.
The report also calls out issues in the previous year such as undermining of accountability on malfeasance, such as by dismissing inspectors general who were responsible for rooting out financial and other Government misconduct. Further issues included amplifying of false allegations of electoral fraud (by Trump and other Republican figures) that served to feed mistrust among the US populace, and condoning of disproportionate violence by police responding to the large racial protests earlier in the year, such protests being against systematic racial injustice.
To round it off the report says that going into the new presidency the US needs to work on strengthening institutional safeguards, restoration of civic norms, and upholding promise of core principles for all segments of society to protect Democracy in the country and regain global credibility, which in turn prevents detrimental knock-on effects against global democracy.
The above is from the Freedom House report but I also want to add some recent developments that will also likely play a large role in US politics and its state within the years to come, such as the various Republican controlled state-legislatures pursuing various new state-level electoral laws framed as to protect against voter fraud, and the Democrats federal-level electoral reforms, namely the “For the People Act”, that is likely going to lead to a political showdown between Republicans and Democrats. Seeing how this plays out is going to be crucial in the next Freedom House report I believe. It is once again a states versus federal government clash in the making.
Freedom House also says since 2010 the US has declined by 11-points in its Democracy standing due to reasons such as political corruption, conflicts of interest, lack of Government transparency, and punitive immigration and asylum policies.
The report did though commend the resilience of media, judicial and democratic institutions which upheld the will of the people, as well as the judges that Trump appointed remaining impartial during the various electoral challenges in courts.
Calling out China’s anti-Democratic Influence on the International Stage
The report also digs into China’s growing international influence, especially via using the global coronavirus pandemic to its advantage, and how all of this is leading to retention of undemocratic practices in various countries around the world and how it is spreading propaganda on the slowness of democracy to deal with a virus via selectively chosen examples, which can falsely convince many that China’s methods of censorship and suppression were effective methods rather than tools for political entrenchment.
The above has included propaganda that puts its sales of medical equipment and supplies to hard-hit countries in the pandemic as donations and used economically dependent governments for propaganda events. It also slams China for attempting to shift blame, such as via alleging the origins of the coronavirus to possibly be in Italy rather than China.
It also rips into China’s growing influence and control in international organisations that are meant to be in place to defend global freedoms, democracy, and human rights and that China is abusing and subverting them to spread its agenda and worldwide propaganda in an attempt to alter global norms. The report also highlights lack of coordinated international response to China’s Uighur abuses.
Venezuela, Hong Kong, Belarus and Others
The report mentions various other countries where their Democracy rating has dropped down further, many of them already being Not Free or only Partly Free. It shows that situations in these countries are failing to improve, and even in the instance where a dictator has been overthrown the country has still not improved and even became worse.
In Venezuela Nicholas Maduro continues his repressive rule, including acts of extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary detentions, and in 2020 aimed to undercut the opposition legitimate-standing by holding legislative elections that were fraudulent, this has allowed Maduro to reimplement his tight grip on power in the country. In Algeria despite the overthrow of the long-time ruler Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 2019, the year 2020 saw an escalated campaign conducted by authorities against such continuing pro-democracy protests. In Ethiopia democratic reforms were disrupted due to the outbreak of civil conflict and many human rights abuses have been reported. In Hong Kong, as many may well know about, the CCP has imposed tough new restrictions to squash pro-democracy protests, such as via the National Security Law, and elections were also postponed.
(I myself would also like to further note this year that further restrictions are being introduced into Hong Kong’s electoral system by the CCP including the vetting of candidates on a “patriotic basis”, and Hong Kong’s elections have once again been pushed back.)
One of the larger decreases in democratic standing was observed in Belarus, which was already considered Not Free, long-time leader Lukashenka once again held on to power through fraudulent elections and in the aftermath many thousands of protesters were thrown in jail, and many in such jails were tortured by authorities.
Abuse of Power in the Name of COVID-19
The report also highlights many countries that used COVID-19 as an excuse to wield emergency powers to an unnecessary degree and use such powers unrelated to the virus, such as to squash opposition protests, withdraw funding to opposition-led local governments, delaying of elections for the sole benefit of the ruling party and leader, and other abuses.
It highlighted Hungary abusing emergency powers that allowed the Government of Viktor Orban to rule by decree, with the report questioning its enactment in the first place when cases of the coronavirus in the country were of little concern, and how the powers were also used to withdraw funding from opposition-led municipalities. The report also slams the country for constitutional amendments in December that transferred public assets to institutions led by loyalists, and that also reduced independent oversight into Government spending, and pandering to supporters by effectively barring same-sex couples from adoption.
The report also hits out at Algeria for maintaining a ban on all forms of mass gatherings even long after other forms of coronavirus-related restrictions had been lifted. They also hit out at the country for arresting prodemocracy activists, related to penal code changes made under COVID-19.
Democracy Gains
But it isn’t all doom and gloom, a number of countries also made improvements in their democratic standing as is highlighted by Freedom House in their report.
Malawi was praised for its judicial system managing to resist attempts of bribery and other corrupt methods and ultimately making a landmark ruling to overturn the election due to fraud, which led to fresh elections that were run democratically. It is one of many upward trends for the democratic standing of the country.
It also commended Taiwan’s excellent response to COVID-19 that maintained freedoms and prevented abuses of power being used in the name of COVID-19 preventions, and how it has continued to shrug off aggressive threats from China, it also commends how the nation shrugged off a disinformation campaign by China to try and sway its presidential election to a more pro-China candidate. The report highlights China’s behavior in influencing international organizations such as the World Health Organisation to ignore what would have been globally helpful reports from Taiwan on the virus (such as information on human-to-human transmission) and exclusion from the organisations World Health Assembly.
The Report
You can read the full 2021 Freedom House democracy report here.
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