The Economist Intelligence Unit's 2010 Democracy index ranks Chad 166th out of 167 countries, the same position as in 2008, putting it second-from-bottom globally and firmly among the 51 countries considered to be governed by authoritarian regimes. This designation includes the states of Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Togo and the Central African Republic (CAR).

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A dismal performance, although there is hope for improvement

Chad ranks so low as a result of several factors. The country's score in the electoral process category is zero, alongside countries such as the CAR, Equatorial Guinea and Eritrea, owing to the lack of free and fair elections in the period under consideration. This score may rise in the next edition of the index as a result of a legislative poll finally being held in February 2011 and the expected presidential election in April. However, although electoral observers commended the conduct of the February poll, the Chadian opposition has denounced it as a sham. Despite recent improvements in security as the rebels have been put on the back foot by government forces, the country was highly insecure for most of 2009-10.

Similarly, corruption levels remained high despite a few high-profile graft prosecutions in early 2010, so the country's functioning of government score remains at zero. The political culture and civil liberties categories score much better, in view of the country's developed culture of opposition movements and a relatively free press, including newspapers that are openly critical of the government, such as N'Djamena Bi-Hebdo. However, brutal slum clearances in the capital, N'Djamena, in mid-2010 and reports that the ruling party, Mouvement patriotique du salut, abused state resources to campaign in the run-up to the February 2011 poll indicate that there are serious shortcomings even in these categories. The political participation category scores zero, in view of the repeated delays to elections originally due to take place in 2009-10.

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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 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, the 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 indexes.

The category indexes 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 regime:

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