The country has remained an ‘electoral autocracy’ at the end of 2023 after first being categorised as one in 2018, the institute said.
By Scroll Staff
India has been one of the “worst autocratisers” in the world in recent years, Sweden-based Varieties of Democracy Institute said in a report released on Thursday.
The country remained an “electoral autocracy” at the end of 2023 after first being categorised as one in 2018, the institute said in a report titled “Democracy Winning and Losing at the Ballot”.
The Sweden-based institute categorises countries into four transitional phases between democratisation and autocratisation: liberal democracy, electoral democracy, electoral autocracy and closed autocracy.
It defines an electoral autocracy as one in which multiparty elections for the executive exist albeit with “insufficient levels of fundamental requisites such as freedom of expression and association, and free and fair elections”.
The V-Dem report said that the process of autocratisation is ongoing in 42 countries – including India – that collectively account for 35% of the world’s population. “India, with 18% of the world’s population, accounts for about half of the population living in autocratising countries,” the institute said.
The report said that the Narendra Modi-led government in India has used laws on sedition, defamation, and counterterrorism to silence critics.
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