TO cut the suspense immediately, democracy is not in danger because of Panama Leaks, Dawn leaks, Picture Leaks, JIT leaks or any other, in the offing, leaks; albeit, come to think of it, we as a nation leak a lot and it is rather miraculous that with this much of leaking, democracy has not yet imploded or exploded altogether in the country. Frankly, a system which leaks so profusely deserves to be in danger all the time; but enough about leaks, at least for now.

Trying to catch up with my reading list, I came across the Democracy Index 2016 report, titled “Revenge of the ‘deplorable’” issued by The Economist Intelligence Unit way back in February 2017. But since the democracy debate is one that never dies, and there’s still some time to go before the next report, it is worth ‘understanding’ the ‘science’ behind it.

To quote from the report, the index is based on ratings for 60 indicators, grouped into five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political cultures.

One can visualise Marx grinning in his grave.

Rather interestingly, EIU in 2011 felt and still feels, “There is no consensus on how to measure democracy... Definitions of democracy are contested”. Perhaps the biggest hurdle in achieving a consensus has to do with defining freedom; since no one in the history of the world has ever seen freedom. On the other hand, defining a monarchy or a dictatorship is a walk in the park; tyranny and oppression have clear definitions.

The EIU in 2011 felt that democracy was under stress; in 2016 it tried to answer why democracy is struggling; not a good sign at all for my democracy-selling friends. In its 2016 report it refers to the ‘World Values Survey’ (WVS) data, according to which there appears to have been a sharp decline in the level of support for democracy as a system of government especially among younger generations.

The following finding from WVS data is absolutely hilarious: “the share of Americans who say that army rule would be ‘good’ or a ‘very good’ thing rose from 1:16 in 1995 to 1:6 in 2014”.

The decline in democracy in the previous year was ascribed to popular revolt against political elites who failed to represent the interest of ordinary people. And I am grateful that it was clarified that the media, expert bodies and international organisations form part of the political elite, happily together with political parties and state institutions.

While it is not explicitly stated, poor economic performance coincides with this growing animosity towards democracy. The fact that the 1pc continue to get richer and the people poorer, in a system for, by and of the people, does raise suspicions about the system. I can almost visualise Karl Marx grinning in his grave.

The nitty-gritty: today only 4.5pc of the world populations lives in a full democracy compared with 8.9pc in 2015; 19 countries out of a total of 193 countries of the world. America, as is India, is now a flawed democracy. My interpretation of the categories is rather simplistic: either you are a democracy or you are not, there is no such thing as almost there or flawed.

Pakistan is a step further down and categorised as hybrid regime: “Elections have substantial irregularities that often prevent them from being both free and fair. Government pressure on opposition parties and candidates may be common. Serious weaknesses are more prevalent than in flawed democracies — in political culture, functioning of government and political participation. Corr­uption tends to be widespread and the rule of law is weak. Civil society is weak. Typically, there is harassment of and pressure on journalists and the judiciary is not independent”.

In a manner of speaking, this is great news, if we aren’t even a democracy, than democracy is not endangered in Pakistan!

Cutting to the chase, Pakistan’s ranking on the index was 111 out of 167, and while in theory it is an improvement from 112 last year, it is still worse than 108 in 2013; in 2011 it was 105.

Since 2006, when our score on the index was 3.92 out of 10, we achieved our best score in 2013 which was 4.64; it has deteriorated over the last two years and is now 4.33. I don’t suppose it would be appropriate to assert that democracy is thriving in Pakistan.

It is our national character to accept what agrees with our worldview and ignore or ridicule whatever is in opposition; perhaps the reason that I could not find anything in the local press on the report. I however believe that disagreement is the bedrock of debate which is the backbone of informed decision making in the best interest of the nation.

The writer is a chartered accountant based in Islamabad.
syed.bakhtiyarkazmi@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2017