Angola is one of the 16 African countries that falls in the Democracy Index

The Democracy Index, which began to be prepared in 2006, portrays the situation of democracy in 2021, in 165 independent states and two territories, based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture and freedoms. civilians.

Each country is classified into a regime type – full democracy, imperfect democracy, hybrid regime or authoritarian regime – depending on the score recorded on a series of indicators.

Angola, classified as an authoritarian regime, is in 122nd place in the global ranking and 26th in the regional ranking of sub-Saharan Africa, which includes 44 countries, and last year obtained the lowest score since 2015, with 3.37 points.

The country is among the 16 states in this region that have recorded a decline in their ranking (-0.29), making up the set of five that have worsened the most, along with Congo (-0.32), Benin (-0.39) , Mali (0.45) and Guinea-Conakry (-0.80).

Another 14 countries maintained their positions and 14 registered minor improvements, with the exception of Zambia, which scored an additional 0.86 points, bringing its score to a total of 5.72.

The region's global score has dropped from an already low score of 4.16 in 2020 to 4.12 in 2021, prolonging the "democratic recession".

The report notes that "modest gains" made in the first decade after the Index's inception in 2006, when the sub-Saharan region went from 4.24 to a high of 4.38 in 2015, quickly faded and the score has been declining. since that time.

Norway, the highest ranked country in the table, with a full democracy, scores at 9.75, while Portugal, an imperfect democracy, is in 28th place, with 7.82 points.

According to the report, the 2021 results reflect the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on democracy and freedom around the world for the second year in a row.

The pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented decrease in freedoms, both among developed democracies and in authoritarian regimes, due to the imposition of confinements and travel restrictions and, progressively, with the introduction of "green passports" that require vaccination certificates against covid-19. for participation in public life, the document states.

"This has led to the normalization of emergency powers, which tend to remain in legislation, and has accustomed citizens to an enormous extension of state power over vast areas of public and personal life."