Brics enlargement is going to worsen its democracy problem

Last week’s Brics summit concluded with an invitation to Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Iran to join the emerging-market bloc. If confirmed, it would lead to the enlargement of the group to 11 countries from five, increasing its coverage to 46% of the world’s population and 37% of global gross domestic product. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, of those nations only Argentina can be considered a democracy — albeit a flawed one. That means the enlargement would leave the group dominated by non-democratic countries, with seven of them headed by hybrid or authoritarian regimes.