Freedom House Releases “Freedom in the World 2020” Report and Data Files

From Freedom House:

Democracy and pluralism are under assault. Dictators are toiling to stamp out the last vestiges of domestic dissent and spread their harmful influence to new corners of the world. At the same time, many freely elected leaders are dramatically narrowing their concerns to a blinkered interpretation of the national interest. In fact, such leaders—including the chief executives of the United States and India, the world’s two largest democracies—are increasingly willing to break down institutional safeguards and disregard the rights of critics and minorities as they pursue their populist agendas.

As a result of these and other trends, Freedom House found that 2019 was the 14th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. The gap between setbacks and gains widened compared with 2018, as individuals in 64 countries experienced deterioration in their political rights and civil liberties while those in just 37 experienced improvements. The negative pattern affected all regime types, but the impact was most visible near the top and the bottom of the scale. More than half of the countries that were rated Free or Not Free in 2009 have suffered a net decline in the past decade.

Direct to Full Text Report
36 pages; PDF. ||| HTML Version

Direct to Data Files (.xls)

• All Data, FIW 2013-2020
• Country and Territory Ratings and Statuses, 1973-2020
• Aggregate Category and Subcategory Scores, 2003-2020
• List of Electoral Democracies, FIW 2020

Filed under: Data Files, News