“DEMOCRACY DOESN’T happen by accident,” believes President Joe Biden. “We have to defend it, fight for it, strengthen it, renew it.” His efforts to do that will be on show this week at America’s “Summit for Democracy”, due to take place online on December 9th and 10th. At this meeting a “diverse group of the world’s democracies” will discuss defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights. Next year they will be invited back to report (in person, hopefully) how they have combated those threats. Mr Biden hopes the event can shore up the cause of democracy. Whom has he invited?
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A guest list released by the State Department on November 24th includes 110 countries. In selecting these the administration followed its own interests over objective measures. Every year Freedom House, an NGO based in Washington, allocates the countries of the world a “freedom score” out of 100 based on 25 metrics of political rights and civil liberties. It then rates them as “free”, “partly free” or “not free”. Mr Biden’s list includes nearly all the “free” countries, which can safely be considered democracies, save a few European microstates. But another tranche of invitees, such as Zambia (52) and Moldova (61), are considered only “partly free” by Freedom House. Three states—the Democratic Republic of Congo (20), Iraq (29) and Angola (31)—are rated “not free”. Several countries which were not invited, such as Bolivia (66) and Sierra Leone (65), rank well ahead of others who were. (An annual survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company of The Economist, yields similar results.)
How else then might the Biden administration have decided on the list? The need for regional diversity may have helped states such as Iraq (29), Kenya (48) and Niger (48) make the cut. Strategic considerations were also at play. Pakistan (37) and Ukraine (60) have lacklustre democratic records but one is a strategically important American partner and the other is under threat of occupation from an authoritarian regime. Taiwan (94), a vibrant democracy with scant international recognition, is invited, a sign of political solidarity at a time of rising Chinese aggression toward the island. That act has infuriated China (9), which has denounced the summit and which recently, and risibly, claimed to be more democratic than America. Yet China was not invited, nor was Russia (20) or Saudi Arabia (7). Among the excluded are several states that have frustrated America with their democratic backsliding in recent years. The increasingly autocratic governments of Turkey (32) and Hungary (69) were both left out, despite being NATO allies. (Hungary is also the only member of the European Union which was not invited, a snub that compelled its government to block the participation of the EU, the 111th name on Mr Biden’s list.)
The result is a tangle of contradictions and missed opportunities. India (67), Brazil (74) and Poland (82) have all slipped down the Freedom House rankings in recent years, yet they were too politically significant to be left off the list. Bosnia and Herzegovina (53) ranks just behind its Balkan neighbour Kosovo (54) and could use American support at a time of increasing political polarisation, but was not invited. America’s own score has fallen, from 86 in 2019 to 83 in 2020, placing it behind 60 other countries. With luck Mr Biden will be among those reporting improvements next year. ■
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