Ghana placed 78 out of 167 independent states including two territories with an overall score of 6.02 on the Economists Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Democracy Index 2011 released December 15, 2011, same as the 2010 edition.
The EIU describes Ghana’s democracy as a flawed one, meaning the country, despite having free and fair elections as well as respect for basic civil liberties, there are “significant weaknesses in other aspects of democracy, including problems in governance, an underdeveloped political culture and low levels of political participation.”
According to the UK-based Unit, free and fair elections and civil liberties are necessary conditions for democracy, but “they are unlikely to be sufficient for a full and consolidated democracy if unaccompanied by transparent and at least minimally efficient government, sufficient political participation and a supportive democratic political culture. It is not easy to build a sturdy democracy.”
The index values are used to place countries within one of four types of regimes: Full democracies – scores of 8-10; Flawed democracies – score of 6 to 7.9; Hybrid regimes – scores of 4 to 5.9 and Authoritarian regimes – scores below 4.
The overall Democracy index is based on five categories: Electoral process and pluralism; Civil liberties; Functioning of government; Political participation; and political culture.
On the electoral process and pluralism category, Ghana scored 8.33 points while in the Functioning of government category, the country scored 5.00.
For both the Civil liberties and Political participation categories, Ghana scored 6.76 and 5.00 respectively. Ghana scored 5.00 points in the political culture category.
For full democratic regime which is the highest on the Index, the EIU says “Countries in which not only basic political freedoms and civil liberties are respected, but these will also tend to be underpinned by a political culture conducive to the flourishing of democracy.”
“The functioning of government must be satisfactory. Media are independent and diverse. There is an effective system of checks and balances. The judiciary is independent and judicial decisions are enforced. There are only limited problems in the functioning of democracies,” observed the EIU.
Only Mauritius (ranked 24 with 8.04 points) of the 44 sub-Saharan African countries assessed remained a full democracy. Mauritius has maintained a strong democratic tradition since the country gained independence in 1968, the EIU says.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the index noted that elections have become a normal occurrence and that since the late 1990s the number of coups has fallen sharply, whereas the number of elections has increased. However, the index says “many elections are rigged and defeated incumbents often still refuse to accept defeat.”
