Modi visit to US: Highlights different types of democracy around the world

To hear Prime Minister Narendra Modi tell it, India is “the mother of democracy” and a country where there is “absolutely no” discrimination of any sort.

In almost poetic language, he painted an idyllic picture of the state of democracy in an address to the joint houses of Congress which was punctuated by frequent applause and standing ovations. His paean to Indian democracy, however, did not prompt many to rise to their feet. Americans tend to view their own country as modern history’s first democracy.

Here is what Modi said:
“ Democracy is the spirit that supports equality and dignity. 
Democracy is the idea that welcomes debate and discourse. 
Democracy is the culture that gives wings to thought and expression. 
India is blessed to have such values from times immemorial. 
In the evolution of the democratic spirit, India is the Mother of Democracy.”

Asked to comment earlier at a joint press conference with US President Joe Biden on reports that his government has discriminated against religious minorities and sought to silence its critics, Modi’s response was “I’m actually really surprised that you are saying that people say so.” He added: “In India’s democratic values, there is absolutely no discrimination neither on the basis of caste, creed, age, or any kind of geographic location.”
 
Modi’s visit to Washington, an occasion of pomp and circumstance and only the third such visit since President Joe Biden took office, prompted extensive media coverage and numerous references to human rights organisations pointing out government-sponsored hostility to India’s Muslim minority.

Yet for reporters, there was no need to refer to non-governmental organisations to specify that “the mother of democracy” is far from perfect. For an American government view of democracy in India, look no further than the US State Department’s latest annual Human Rights report, issued in March. In extraordinary detail, the 19,000-word chapter on India provides a long list of anti-democratic practices.

The report paints a grim picture of rising religious intolerance, shrinking political space, government targeting of civil society organisations and journalists, growing restrictions on press freedoms and internet access, increasing violence against religious minorities, extrajudicial killings by the government and arbitrary arrest and detention of people then held as political prisoners. The list goes on. 

To get such different assessments in perspective, it is useful to look at long-running surveys compiled by independent analysts on the state of democracies around the world. They include the World Press Freedom Index whose 2023 report places India at 161 out of 180 countries surveyed. That is just three places above Russia. The latest Democracy Index of the widely-respected Economist Intelligence Unit ranks India as a “flawed democracy.”

The V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden classifies India as an “electoral autocracy”, a phrase used to denote countries with free and fair elections but where leaders, once elected, pursue autocratic practices such as cracking down on press freedom and opposition politicians.

According to V-Dem, the vast majority of the world’s eight billion people live in autocracies.  Fewer than seven per cent live in full democracies, one of four categories listed by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The others are flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes.

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A full democracy, by the definition of the widely-respected EIU, is a country that not only guarantees political freedoms and civil liberties but also has a well-functioning government, free and fair elections, independent and diverse media, an independent judiciary and an effective system of checks and balances.

A flawed democracy also has free and fair elections but weak governance, infringements on media freedom and low levels of political participation. In hybrid countries, the government exerts pressure on opposition parties, allows widespread corruption, harasses journalists and has a judiciary that lacks independence. The term authoritarian government is self-explanatory and the list includes China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. 

The United States, for many years classified as a full democracy, lost that status in 2017 and has since been ranked as a flawed democracy. The reason, according to the EIU: dwindling trust in government, elected representatives and political parties. That trend preceded the election of Donald Trump in 2016 but accelerated since then. 

Now, the US ranks 30 on a list of 167 countries. India takes up 40th place. The top ten of the countries rated full democracies are Norway, New Zealand, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Taiwan. Afghanistan comes dead last.

Democratic government is a messy, difficult business. That helps explain a startling finding by annual surveys conducted by the Chicago-based communications company Edelman. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, authoritarian governments in several key countries are more trusted by their citizens than democracies.

The 2023 Trust Barometer, based on more than 36,000 online interviews in 28 countries,  showed that no government was as trusted by its citizens as China (83%), followed by the United Arab Emirates (76 %) and Saudi Arabia (63%). All three are authoritarian. 

Even allowing for a measure of scepticism about online surveys in highly efficient surveillance states such as China and the UAE, the findings are remarkable. Edelman has conducted its surveys for more than two decades, and China has regularly scored high on trust.

India is ranked fourth in that index, which showed a two-per cent increase, to 76%, from 2022 to 2023. The citizens of the world’s most populous country apparently have little problem with the democratic flaws criticised by outsiders. 

Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.

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