Georgia’s democratic decline 4th steepest in world according to Economist Democracy Index
Georgia experienced both the ‘steepest deterioration in the region in 2024’ and had the fourth largest decline across all 167 countries surveyed, according to the 2024 democracy index by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
While labelling several moves made by the ruling Georgian Dream party as contributing to the democratic backsliding, the report framed the actions as being related to Russia ‘indirectly’ playing a role in domestic politics.
The Economist specifically cited the controversial foreign agent law and the contested parliamentary elections in October, which it described as ‘marred by abnormalities, including pressure on journalists and NGOs and allegations of vote buying and ballot stuffing’.
Again referencing the larger geopolitical situation, the report said the election ‘became a contest between two opposing views of Georgia’s future direction, either towards Russia or the EU’.
The speed of Georgia’s democratic decline in 2024 came behind only Bangladesh, Tunisia, and Kuwait, according to the report.
The report gave Georgia a democracy score of 4.70 on a scale of 0-10, where 0 represents a fully authoritarian system and 10 represents a full democracy. This was down from 5.20 in the 2023 report and down from a high of 5.95 in 2013, a year after the ruling Georgian Dream party came to power. It was also the fifth worst score in Europe, ahead of only Belarus, Russia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.
Neighbouring Armenia maintained its regional lead in the index, despite its score declining slightly from 5.42 to 5.35 in 2024. Armenia overtook Georgia in 2018, following the Velvet Revolution that swept Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to power.
Azerbaijan maintained its previous score of 2.80, with the report classifying the country as an Authoritarian state.
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