Civility Report 2021
All countries that are members of the United Nations were reviewed and given a human rights, democracy, peace, and civility score, using a scale of 0-100 (100 being the best). In every category, each country is also ranked relative to other countries. The human rights score measures a nation’s behaviour towards the fundamental rights that all human beings are entitled to and in which governments must refrain from interfering. The democracy score measures the extent to which a government derives its powers from the consent of its people and respects minority rights. The peace score measures a nation’s peaceful coexistence among other nations. The civility score reflects the overall behaviour of a nation.
The report is intended to inform citizens about the behaviours of their government and show the relative civility position of their government in the world. It enables governments to prioritize their reform policies in order to improve their international standings. It may also be used as a tool to assess countries for their good domestic and international conduct. In addition, it can assist governments as well as international public and private entities with a means to assess their risks of conducting business in other countries.
Lithuania has moved up two notches in The Economist’s annual Democracy Index but remains behind the other two Baltic states. It ranked 40th in the 2021 Democracy Index with a score of 7.18 out of 10, up from the 42nd position a year ago. Lithuania’s electoral process and pluralism received a score of 9.58, the functioning of government – 7.86, political participation – 6.67, political culture – 6.88, and civil liberties – 8.24.
Estonia had the highest score among the Baltic states and ranked 27th, with Latvia being in the 38th position, and Poland ranking 51st. Norway (9.75), New Zealand (9.37) and Finland (9.27) received the highest scores for the quality of democracy, while Afghanistan had the lowest score and ranked 167th. The Democracy Index is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research division of the Economist Group, a UK-based private company, which publishes the weekly magazine The Economist. Canada ranked 12th, and the US was 26th.
