On January 1st Indonesia took over the rotating chair of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, said that Indonesia would host two summits of ASEAN leaders in 2011, the first in May in the capital, Jakarta, and the second on the island of Bali in October. Mr Natalegawa said that Indonesia would use its position as chair of the organisation to make progress towards the ASEAN economic community, an ambitious project that seeks to create an economic union across the ten-member group by 2015. Attention will also be given to strengthening the ASEAN Human Rights Commission, which may lead indirectly to a stronger stance against human rights abuses in Myanmar. Indonesia's foreign policy aims extend increasingly beyond the South-east Asia region. Mr Natalegawa said that the country would strengthen its contribution to UN peacekeeping missions in 2011 as part of an ongoing campaign to build support for Indonesia to be given a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Democracy index: Indonesia

The Economist Intelligence Unit's democracy index ranks Indonesia 60th out of 167 countries, putting it among the 52 countries considered to be "flawed democracies". This designation includes neighbouring states such as the Philippines and Malaysia. Although Indonesia made the transition from dictatorship to democracy only around ten years ago, holding its first free and fair elections for over 30 years in 1999, strong electoral processes have been quickly established. However, its score in this area is dragged down by the lack of transparency in campaign funding.

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The press is free, but not all citizens enjoy protection of their rights

The country's vibrant free press gives it a relatively high score in the civil liberties category, but freedom of religious expression is undermined by the state's repeated failure to protect religious minorities, most notably Islamic sects and Christians, from vigilante attacks. Laws passed in 2008, including a ban on Ahmadiyya (a Muslim sect that holds allegedly heretical views) and an archaic anti-pornography law that will make certain local traditions unlawful, further undermined the country's tolerant image. The willingness of some members of the judiciary to accept bribes and a lack of professionalism within the police force mean that the law does not provide adequate and equal protection for all citizens.

Support for democracy is not universal

Government functioning is undermined by pervasive corruption, the poor quality of civil servants and the strong influence of interest groups. Nevertheless, changes to the democratic process in recent years have largely removed the military from the political arena and have made elected officials more accountable to the public. Indonesia fares badly in the political participation and political culture categories. Although voter turnout has been high in the last three national elections, the under-representation of women and minorities, together with the low level of literacy, bring down the country's score for political participation. A relatively small proportion of Indonesia's population believes that democracy is good for public order and economic growth.

Solid economic growth may lead to more popular support for democracy

Popular support for democracy may improve in 2011 as the economy records another year of solid growth, raising living standards and giving people a greater stake in the status quo. However, some groups will continue to exploit ethnic, religious and other tensions for their own political ends, and the state will not always intervene to defend the country's traditions of tolerance. Reforms aimed at improving the effectiveness of government, such as attempts to eliminate corruption, will proceed in a start-stop fashion owing to opposition from vested interests. Nonetheless, the democratic system is unlikely to be threatened.

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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, are the sine qua non of all definitions. However, the Economist Intelligence Unit's 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-factors that are, at best, marginalised by other measures.

Our Democracy index 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; functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. The five categories are interrelated, and form a coherent conceptual whole. Each category is assigned 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 capacity 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-score of 6 to 7.9;
• hybrid regimes-scores of 4 to 5.9;
• authoritarian regimes-scores below 4.