2023-04-26 07:05:00
What is currently lived in Ecuador It is nothing more than a reflection of what happens at a broader level with democracy in Latin America and the world.
The V-Dem Institute of the University of Gothenburg It highlights in its latest annual report (2023) that 72% of the world population currently lives in regimes that could be classified as autocracies. This figure is worrying when one takes into account that in 2012 this percentage was 46%.
In addition to the V-Dem Institute, there are other institutions specialized in evaluating democratic performance: Freedom House, The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the Bertelsmann Foundation (BTI), among others. Freedom House, for example, has recorded a decline in freedom in the world for 16 years. International IDEA also detects a sharp rise in the last decade in the number of countries that have suffered a moderate or sharp contraction of their democratic qualities.
As can be seen, both the global and regional figures register a frank deterioration. In the case of Latin America, In addition to authoritarian regimes such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, the rest of the countries are not doing well either. Uruguay, Costa Rica and Chile are the exception and have the best valuation. Panama,
Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and the Dominican Republic are located in a medium-high degree. In an intermediate position are Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru. This despite the fact that internally we think that our situation is critical and acute. Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are located in a medium-low degree.
All this should make us reconsider what we have today and what we really want as a country. And the great challenge is not only to be able to improve the basic institutional aspects of a quality democracy, but also to what extent concrete solutions are being given to the growing needs of citizens.
The task becomes uphill when we see that the political operators, who are the ones who should promote these changes, are deficient.
#Deterioration #democracy #Comercio