Mauritius, the only African country ranked as a ‘full democracy’ – EIU report

The island nation of Mauritius is Africa’s only fully democratic country according to the 2022 Democracy Index, an annual report by the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU).

The country ranked ahead of France, Spain and South Korea on the list of full democracies which numbered 24 across the world.

The Democracy Index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, political culture, and civil liberties.

Mauritius’ scores were as follows:

Overall score = 8.14

Global Rank = 21st

Regional rank = 1st

Rank Change in rank from previous year = -2

I Electoral process and pluralism = 9.17 / 10

II Functioning of government = 7.86 / 10

III Political participation = 6.11 / 10

IV Political culture = 8.75 / 10

V Civil liberties = 8.82 / 10

Ghana was one of six African countries that were put in the category along with Botswana, Namibia, Cabo Verde, South Africa and Lesotho.

Flawed democracies are defined as nations where elections are fair and free and basic civil liberties are honoured but may have issues (e.g. media freedom infringement and minor suppression of political opposition and critics).

About the 2022 Democracy Index

The Democracy Index, which began in 2006, provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide in 165 independent states and two territories. This covers almost the entire population of the world and the vast majority of the world’s states (microstates are excluded).

Based on its scores on a range of indicators within these categories, each country is then classified as one of four types of regime: “full democracy”, “flawed democracy”, “hybrid regime” or “authoritarian regime”.

Sub-Saharan Africa

“Flawed democracies” are concentrated in developing regions such as eastern Europe (16 in 2022), Asia (9), Latin America (9), and Sub-Saharan Africa (6).

Many of the nations in Sub-Saharan Africa continue to be concentrated at the bottom of the Democracy Index rankings.

The continent has only one “full democracy”—Mauritius—and six “flawed democracies” in 2022, unchanged from the 2021 index.

The number of countries classed as “hybrid regimes”, at 14, also remains unchanged from the 2021 index. Authoritarian forms of government continue to dominate, with 23 countries still classified as such. The overall average regional score