V-Dem Democracy Index and India's Ranking

#GS-2 #Indian Polity & Constitution #Governance & Social Justice #Current Events #Democracy #V-Dem Index

Key takeaways

India's Electoral Democracy Index score in the V-Dem Democracy Report dropped to its lowest level since 1975.
The Varieties of Democracy Institute at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden produces this multidimensional global assessment.
Key indicators including judicial accountability, Election Management Body autonomy, and impartial administration fell to 50-year lows.
The report highlights concerns regarding voter exclusion, declining media freedom, reduced academic autonomy, and slow autocratization.

India's Electoral Democracy Index score has fallen to its lowest level since 1975 in the latest V-Dem Democracy Report.
This drop reflects a continuous decline in India's democratic scores that has been observed since 2009.

The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Index measures democracy globally using a multidimensional approach instead of looking only at elections.
It assesses nations on electoral integrity, civil liberties, institutional autonomy, judicial accountability, freedom of expression, and public administration.
The index is published by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute, which is based at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
Its main goal is to compare democratic features across countries, track democratic progress or decline, and spot broad trends like democratization or autocratization.

India recorded its lowest Electoral Democracy Index score since 1975, which was the year the national Emergency was declared.
The report places India among countries facing slow autocratization, marked by a gradual weakening of key democratic institutions.
Scores for judicial accountability, corruption control, Election Management Body autonomy, and neutral public administration hit 50-year lows.
Freedom of academic and cultural expression declined alongside a rise in official harassment of media journalists.
Indicators measuring academic expression, research and teaching freedom, and university institutional autonomy also recorded significant drops.

Declining institutional autonomy threatens to erode public trust in electoral, judicial, and administrative systems.
Concerns regarding voter exclusion and reduced autonomy for election management raise doubts about holding free, fair, and inclusive elections.
These trends underline the need to protect constitutional checks and balances, independent bodies, voter inclusion, and free speech.

In Polity and Governance, this topic covers the Indian Constitution, democratic bodies, electoral reforms, the Election Commission, separation of powers, and judicial independence.
In International Relations, it helps assess global democratic indices, international evaluations, and human rights benchmarks.
In Ethics and Governance, it relates directly to institutional integrity, administrative impartiality, accountability, objectivity, and ethical conduct.
In Essay writing, it provides valuable arguments on constitutionalism, institutional independence, freedom of expression, and democratic accountability.