The Economist Intelligence Unit's updated democracy index for 2010 ranks South Africa 30th out of 167 countries (up one position from two years ago), putting it among the 53 countries considered to be "flawed democracies". South Africa achieved full democracy status in three categories-electoral process, civil liberties and government functioning-but fell short in two others: political participation and political culture. The deterioration in South Africa's overall score, from 7.91 in 2008 to 7.79 in 2010, coupled with its rise in the league table, illustrates a global retreat from democracy. South Africa has held a series of competitive elections since 1994, which have been undisputedly free and fair, while democratic institutions are robust, underpinned by a well-written constitution. Government functioning is improving, as public-sector capacity increases, while the private sector (including business and civil society organisations) has a significant voice.

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Opposition parties fail to pose a major challenge for the ruling party

South Africa scored reasonably well across all the categories, but the country's long-term development of democracy may be under threat. The country's democracy is flawed because of the dominant position held by the African National Congress (ANC), which retained power with a massive 67% of the vote in April 2009. Despite a small loss of support since 2004 (when its support topped 70%), the party continues to dominate most levels of government, and opposition parties struggle to make an impact. This means that most crucial debates take place within the party-and within the tripartite alliance with the communists and trade unions-rather than in the public arena, which is bad for transparency and accountability. The ANC is also sensitive to criticism and is contemplating new curbs on information and the media, potentially threatening the country's democratic standing. The official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, is making some gains and controls the Western Cape, but it mainly relies on white and mixed-race supporters and struggles to appeal to the black majority. The Congress of the People, which broke away from the ANC in 2008, has failed to offer an effective alternative because of bitter in-fighting. However, the emergence of a major opposition party is crucial to the development of full democracy.

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Democracy index 2010: Democracy in retreat, a free white paper containing the full index and detailed methodology, can be downloaded from www.eiu.com/DemocracyIndex2010.

Note on methodology

There is no consensus on how to measure democracy. Free and fair elections, and satisfying other aspects of political freedom, are clearly essential. However, our index is based on the view that measures of democracy that concentrate on the state of political freedom and civil liberties leave out some crucial features that determine the quality and substance of democracy. Thus, our index also includes measures of political participation, political culture and functioning of government, which are often ignored by other measures.

Our index of democracy covers 167 countries and territories. The index is based on the ratings for 60 indicators grouped in five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. The five categories are interrelated and form a coherent conceptual whole. Each category has a rating on a 0-10 scale, and the overall index of democracy is the simple average of the five category indexes.

The category indexes are based on the sum of the indicator scores in the category, converted to a 0-10 scale. Adjustments to the category scores are made if countries fall short in the following critical areas for democracy:

• whether national elections are free and fair;
• the security of voters;
• the influence of foreign powers on government; and
• the ability of the civil service to implement policy.

The index values are used to place countries within one of four types of regime:

• Full democracy-scores of 8-10
• Flawed democracy-scores of 6-7.9
• Hybrid regime-scores of 4-5.9
• Authoritarian regime-scores below 4.