Uzbekistan has made big strides in recent years in modernizing its economy. A new survey shows that Tashkent has also registered modest progress in fostering rule of law.

Uzbekistan is among a minority of states that saw improvements in its rule-of-law score, according to a 2025 index compiled by the World Justice Project (WJP). Tashkent advanced three spots to place 81st out of the 143 states evaluated. Overall, 97 countries saw their scores decline in this year’s survey.

The results show a pronounced dip over the past year in what has been a generally downward trend globally for rule of law over the past decade.

“An expansion of authoritarian trends – namely a reduction in civic space and weakening checks and balances – has been the primary force behind this downturn,” WJP said of the findings. “While building resilient rule of law institutions can be a long and iterative process, dismantling them can happen rapidly.”

Among states in the Caucasus and Central Asia, Georgia saw the biggest year-on-year fall in its rule-of-law score. The WJP attributed the decline to “an expansion of authoritarian trends” in which “the integrity of checks and balances has also been seriously weakened.”

Over the past two years, the Georgian Dream government has embraced authoritarian practices while making a geopolitical pivot away from the West toward Russia and China. Despite this political-ideological u-turn, Georgia remained the highest-ranked country in the WJP index among states in the Caucasus and Central Asia, coming in at 52nd.

Kyrgyzstan also saw a slight fall in its WJP score, slipping two places in the ranking to 104th. WJP noted declines in the country’s civic space and the prevalence of corruption.

Kazakhstan’s rule-of-law score remained unchanged with the previous year’s total. Astana stood at 66th in the rankings, the highest of any Central Asian state evaluated. Like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan’s rule-of-law trajectory has improved markedly over the past decade but has flattened out in recent years.

The WJP survey did not include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan or Turkmenistan.

Overall, WJP rated Russia among top three decliners in fostering rule of law in the 2025 ranking, along with Sudan and Mozambique. Russia fell five spots to 119th.

The United States saw its score dip, continuing a generally downward trend since 2016, slipping one place to 27th in the 2025 WJP survey. The top three ranked states in the WJP ranking are Denmark, Norway and Finland.

The WJP scores and rankings are based on over 215,000 household surveys and 4,100 legal questionnaires completed by practitioners and experts. The surveys measure eight factors relating to rule of law, including constraints on government power, civil justice, the absence of corruption and order and security.

Among the most significant findings in the 2025 index, the civic space for dissent and watchdog action is experiencing a rapid decline. According to WJP, freedom of opinion and expression fell in 73 percent of the 143 countries covered in the index, civic participation dropped in 71 percent of countries and judicial limits on government power receded in 61 percent of states.