March 15, 2019
The Economist has ranked Iran among the least democratic governments in the world, even giving it a zero for its electoral processes.
The Economist Intelligence Unit, a subdivision of the The Economist magazine of London, has published its 2018 Democracy Index rankings of 167 countries, putting Iran in 150th place or 90 percent of the way down the list.
The index rated Iran as one of 53 “authoritarian” states in the world.
It rated Iran poorly even in the Middle East and North Africa region, ranking it 15th of the 20 countries in the region. The five regional countries falling below Iran are Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
In 167th and last place was, unsurprisingly, North Korea.
Twenty countries were rated as “full democracies.” The United States did not make that rating. It fell out of that list after the election of Donald Trump and was put in 25th place for 2018. The full democracies include 14 European countries plus Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Mauritius.
In its single paragraph on Iran in the analysis, the Economist Intelligence Unit said: “In Iran, participation in the formal political process has traditionally been strong, with high voter turnout in national elections. The president, Hassan Rohani, was re-elected comfortably in May 2017.
“However, with public discontent intensifying over poor economic management—a situation that is intensifying following the re-imposition of US sanctions against Iran in 2018—unrest has increased. Protests have occasionally turned violent. Widespread protests in December 2017 and January 2018 revealed disquiet among poorer Iranians over inequality and rising prices, reflecting the fact that any benefits from the international nuclear deal have not fed through to the wider population.
“Protests emerged across Iran between late March and early April 2018 as a consequence of water shortages. However, the lack of a clear leader for protesters to unite around and the strength of the security services has meant that the regime has not come under threat.”