Malta score in Democracy Index gets lowest ranking ever in a decade

Democracy Index published by The Economist says Malta has recorded its steepest score decline in the wake of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia

The wreckage of the car, Daphne Caruana Galizia was driving
The wreckage of the car, Daphne Caruana Galizia was driving

Malta has scored its steepest decline yet in the Democracy Index published by the newspaper The Economist.

Coming in the 2017 index in 17th position, Malta retained its position as a “full democracy”, sandwiched between Uruguay and Mauritius. Norway, Iceland and Sweden took the top ranks in the index, while the United States of America came in 21st position as a “flawed democracy”.

The steepest score declines in western Europe were recorded by Malta (-0.24), Spain (-0.22), Turkey, (-0.16) and France (-0.12).

“Malta’s score has slipped following the unresolved murder in October 2017 of Daphne Caruana Galizia, an anti-corruption blogger, which has raised questions about the rule of law and the authorities’ willingness to investigate sensitive crimes,” the Economist said in its report.

Malta’s overall score was 8.15, where it ranked higher (9.15) on the electoral process and pluralism indicator, and lowest (6.11) in the political participation indicator.

In 2016, Malta had scored 8.39 – a constant score since 2014, briefly dipping to 8.28 in 2010. 2017’s score is the country’s lowest score since 2006.  

Malta even fell to the “partly free” category in the Economist’s Free Speech Ranking, in joint 31 position with 17 other countries that included outliers Italy and Cyprus.

Again the assassination of Caruana Galizia in a car bomb attack was the reason why Malta’s score in the index fell sharply. “She wrote a popular blog exposing high-level political corruption, murky business deals and the activities of criminal gangs on the island.”

The prosecution of the three men charged with the journalist’s assassination continues on Thursday, although the jury is still out on who commissioned the hit in the first place.

The Democracy Index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Based on its scores on a range of indicators within these categories, each country is then itself classified as one of four types of regime: “full democracy”; “flawed democracy”; “hybrid regime”; and “authoritarian regime”

Full democracies are countries in which not only basic political freedoms and civil liberties are respected, but which also tend to be underpinned by a political culture conducive to the flourishing of democracy. “The functioning of government is 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.”