Botswana Maintains Good Democracy Ranking
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday January 27, 2020 16:40
Botswana has been ranked 29th out of 167 in the 2019 Democracy Index with a score of 7.81 out of a possible 10. Economist Intelligence Unit released Democracy Index 2019 last week. The score places Botswana just below Israel with 7.86, Estonia with 7.90 and Malta 7.95, and just above Cabo Verde 7.78.
Botswana is second in Africa behind Mauritius, which has a score of 8.22. Mauritius is the only African country with a full democracy regime. They are 17th in the global rankings.
Botswana is one of the six countries categorised as Flawed democracies in Africa alongside Cabo Verde, South Africa, Ghana, Lesotho and Namibia.
Sub-Saharan Africa is populated by a large number of authoritarian regimes encompassing half of the region’s 44 countries scored in the Democratic Index. The overall regional average score in the Democracy Index fell to 4.26 in 2019, from 4.36 in 2018.
This is the lowest average score for the continent since 2010, in the aftermath of the global economic and financial crisis, when every region of the world registered a democratic regression in the Democracy Index.
Botswana has had a generally upward trend since 2008 when the country was ranked 39th in the world with a score of 7.47.
The Democracy Index further breaks down the overall state of each country’s governance according to various categories with Botswana continuing to obtain near-perfect scores for Electoral Process and Pluralism (9.17) and Civil Liberties (9.12) in other scores; Functioning of government (7.14), Political participation (6.11) and Political culture 7.50.
Furthermore, in a separate index for Corruption perceptions by Transparency International, Botswana is ranked second in Africa behind Seychelles with a score of 61/100.
This year’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) presents a largely gloomy picture for Africa with only eight out of 49 countries scoring more than 43 out of 100 on the index.
Seychelles scores 66 out of 100, to put it at the top of the region. Botswana and Cabo Verde, with scores of 61 and 57, follow Seychelles respectively.
At the very bottom of the index for the seventh year in a row, Somalia scores 10 points, followed by South Sudan (13) to round up the lowest scores in the region.
With an average score of just 32, Sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest scoring region on the index, followed closely by Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with an average score of 35.
The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and businesspeople.
The recent analysis shows corruption is more pervasive in countries where big money can flow freely into electoral campaigns and where governments listen only to the voices of the well-off or well-connected individuals.