TOKYO -- A country that was until recently ruled by a military junta saw the sharpest improvement of any nation worldwide in a new global democracy index, while the world's biggest democracy got its lowest ever score.
Previously classified as a "hybrid regime," Thailand moved up to "flawed democracy" status after holding an election last March -- five years after a caretaker government was deposed in a military coup, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index 2019. The Southeast Asian nation scored 6.32 on a scale of zero to ten, pushing it up 38 places to 68th in the world last year.
