The Economist Intelligence Unit's 2010 democracy index ranks Syria 153rd out of 167 countries. Of the 20 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, 17 are ranked as "authoritarian" and only Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iran score worse than Syria. The Syrian score is held back by the fact that there are few options for political participation, no meaningful elections and highly restricted civil liberties. It has improved its position in the rankings owing in part to an improvement in its score but also to a general decline in our evaluation of democracies elsewhere as governance, political participation, civil liberties, media freedoms and attitudes that are conducive to democracy have been generally eroded. Syria's score has increased as a result of greater confidence in government, as it has proceeded with the (mainly economic) reform programme and the expansion of civil liberties, which have mainly improved because of a better security situation in Iraq.

Download the numbers in Excel

The Baath party is dominant

Syria has been governed by the Baath party since it seized power in 1963. The party has, for most of that time, been dominated by the Assad family and associated members of its Alawi sect. Baath party rule has brought stability but has restricted political debate, with the party having co-opted other organisations such as trade unions. At its June 2005 congress, the Baath party endorsed the principle of amending the law on political parties to permit a degree of pluralism, and in 2007 Mr Assad promised that the government would begin work on a political parties law and establish a second chamber of parliament to expand the decision-making circle. However, there has been little sign of progress in implementing such reforms. In any case, the proposals fell far short of the demands of Syria's main opposition forces, including the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Kurdish nationalists and human rights activists. The Baath party conference is supposed to take place every five years and is therefore overdue.

Further political liberalisation is possible

Syria has survived the global economic crisis in relatively good health and has managed to stem the decline in oil production temporarily. Combined with better relations with Western and regional countries there is a chance that the Baath party may feel more secure and hence able to deliver at least the limited political reforms that it has previously endorsed. Conversely, a lack of pressure on the regime provides little urgency for it to take action and it has continued to arrest and restrict the movement of political dissidents and democracy and human rights activists.

Download the numbers in Excel

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 and definitions of democracy are contested. Having free and fair competitive elections, and satisfying related aspects of political freedom, is the sine qua non of all definitions. However, our index is based on the view that measures of democracy that reflect the state of political freedom and civil liberties are not "thick" enough: they do not encompass sufficiently 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, at best, marginalised by other measures.

Our index of democracy covers 167 countries and territories. The index, on a 0 to 10 scale, 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 inter-related and form a coherent conceptual whole. Each category has a rating on a 0 to 10 scale, and the overall index of democracy is the simple average of the five category indices.

The category indices are based on the sum of the indicator scores in the category, converted to a 0 to 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 capability of the civil service to implement policies.

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

• full democracies-scores of 8 to 10;
• flawed democracies-score of 6 to 7.9;
• hybrid regimes-scores of 4 to 5.9;
• authoritarian regimes-scores below 4.