The Economist argues that the degradation of category is mainly due to the concern for judicial independence. They refer to the constitutional crisis that has prevented the renewal of the General Council of the Spanish Judiciary, which has been in office since December 2018. “More broadly, Spain is suffering from increased parliamentary fragmentation, a litany of corruption scandals and rising regional nationalism in Catalonia posing challenges to governance”, states the report.

Three years ago, after the violent repression of the independence referendum, Spain was already about to be considered a flawed democracy.

This year, according to the report, there are only 21 full democracies in the world (last year there were 23). Norway is the best ranked country with 9.75 points. New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Ireland also surpass the nine points.

A few days ago, a report published by a team of Catalan economists highlights the methodological shortcomings of the democratic quality indices which conceal repression in Spain

Democracy Index 2021

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