Distinguished Professor Ali Riaz has published a commentary on the 2024 Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI) report on the global state of democracy. Riaz focused on the assessment of democracy in Bangladesh and argued that the report provides an indictment on the governance in Bangladesh.
The BTI report described Bangladesh as a “moderate autocracy.” Riaz writes, the BTI’s 2024 report provides an opportunity to examine a decade-long trend of democracy and governance in Bangladesh. A clear and remarkable downward trend is documented in the data available from 2014 to 2024.
Riaz also looked at the status of democracy in South Asia. The picture of South Asia that has emerged from the report is not encouraging by any standards. Of the seven countries, four have been classified as defective democracies (Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka), two have been described as hard autocracies (Afghanistan and Pakistan), and one as a moderate autocracy (Bangladesh). Among these, Bhutan has the best scores in the status index and governance index at 6.46 and 7.20, respectively, on a scale between 1 and 10. While India has been classified as a flawed democracy, several aspects of democratic rights are noted to be on a downward trend.
