The Economist Democracy Index

The Democracy Index published by the British media company the Economist Group is an index measuring the quality of democracy across the world. This quantitative and comparative assessment is centrally concerned with democratic rights and democratic institutions. The methodology for assessing democracy used in this democracy index is according to the Economist Intelligence Unit which is part of the Economist Group, a UK-based private company, which publishes the weekly newspaper The Economist. The index is based on 60 indicators grouped into five categories, measuring pluralism, civil liberties, and political culture. In addition to a numeric score and a ranking, the index categorizes each country into one of four regime types: full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes. The first Democracy Index report was published in 2006. Reports were published every two years until 2010 and annually thereafter. The index includes 167 countries and territories, of which 165 are sovereign states and 164 are UN member states. Other democracy indices with similar assessments of the state of democracy include the V-Dem Democracy Indices or Bertelsmann Transformation Index.

Methodology

As described in the report, the Democracy Index produces a weighted average based on the answers to 60 questions, or indicators,[which?] each one with either two or three permitted answers. Most answers are experts' assessments. Some answers are provided by public-opinion surveys from the respective countries. In the case of countries for which survey results are missing, survey results for similar countries and expert assessments are used in order to fill in gaps.

The questions are grouped into five categories:

• electoral process and pluralism (12 indicators)
• functioning of government (14 indicators)
• political participation (9 indicators)
• political culture (8 indicators)
• civil liberties (17 indicators)

Each answer is converted to a score, either 0 or 1, or for the three-answer questions, 0, 0.5 or 1. With the exceptions mentioned below, within each category, the scores are added, multiplied by ten, and divided by the total number of questions within the category. There are a few modifying dependencies, which are explained much more precisely than the main rule procedures. In a few cases, an answer yielding zero for one question voids another question; e.g., if the elections for the national legislature and head of government are not considered free (question 1), then the next question, "Are elections... fair?", is not considered, but automatically scored zero. Likewise, there are a few questions considered so important that a low score on them yields a penalty on the total score sum for their respective categories, namely:

1. "Whether national elections are free and fair";
2. "The security of voters";
3. "The influence of foreign powers on government";
4. "The capability of the civil servants to implement policies".

The five category indices, which are listed in the report, are then averaged to find the overall score for a given country. Finally, the score, rounded to two decimals, decides the regime-type classification of the country.

The report discusses other indices of democracy, as defined, e.g., by Freedom House, and argues for some of the choices made by the team from the Economist Intelligence Unit. In this comparison, a higher emphasis is placed on the public opinion and attitudes, as measured by surveys, but on the other hand, economic living-standards are not weighted as one criterion of democracy (as seemingly some other investigators have done).

The report is widely cited in the international press as well as in peer-reviewed academic journals.

Definitions

• Full democracies are countries where civil liberties and fundamental political freedoms are not only respected but also reinforced by a political culture conducive to the thriving of democratic principles. These nations have a valid system of governmental checks and balances, an independent judiciary whose decisions are enforced, governments that function adequately, and diverse and independent media. These nations have only limited problems in democratic functioning.
• Flawed democracies are countries where elections are fair and free and basic civil liberties are honoured, but may have issues (e.g. media freedom infringement and minor suppression of political opposition and critics). These countries can have significant faults in other democratic aspects, including an underdeveloped political culture, low levels of participation in politics, and issues in the functioning of governance.
• Hybrid regimes are countries with regular electoral fraud, preventing them from being fair and free democracies. These countries commonly have non-independent judiciaries, widespread corruption, and weak rule of law. Political opponents and the media face harassment and pressure from governments. These countries have a less-developed political culture, lower levels of participation in politics, and more pronounced issues in the functioning of governance compared to flawed democracies.
• Authoritarian regimes are countries where political pluralism is nonexistent or severely limited. These nations are often absolute monarchies or dictatorships and may have some conventional institutions of democracy but with meagre significance. Infringements and abuses of civil liberties are commonplace, elections (if they take place) are not fair or free (especially sham elections), the media is often state-owned or controlled by groups associated with the ruling regime, the judiciary is not independent, and censorship and suppression of governmental criticism are commonplace.

By regime type

The following table indicates the number of nations and the percentage of world population for each type of regime. Some microstates are not considered in the calculation.

List by region

The following table lists the average of each country scored by geographic region, as defined by the Economist Democracy Index.

The following table lists the number of countries in each of the four democracy classifications.

List by country

The following table shows each nation's score over the years. The regions are assigned by the Economist Intelligence Unit, and may differ from conventional classifications (for example, Turkey is grouped in Western Europe).

• Asia and Australasia
• Eastern Europe and Central Asia
• Latin America and the Caribbean
• Middle East and North Africa
• North America
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Western Europe