Wikipedia

Democracy in Europe

Democracy in Europe can be comparatively assessed[1] according to various definitions of democracy.[2] According to the V-Dem Democracy Indices, the European countries with the highest democracy scores in 2023 are Denmark, Norway and Sweden, meanwhile the European countries with lowest democracy scores in 2023 are Belarus, Russia and Turkey.[3]

Map of 2023 V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index for Europe

Changes in democracy

edit

After the fall of Communism most countries in Central and Eastern Europe either democratized or re-democratized.[4] Some democratic backsliding can be observed in parts of Europe, including Hungary and Poland.[5][6] The V-Dem Democracy Report identified for the year 2023 Montenegro and Kosovo as cases of stand-alone democratization and North Macedonia as a case of U-Turn democratization, while Poland as a small but statistically insignificant uptick in liberal democracy index.[7] Some view European democracies have become more consensual and less majoritarian over time.[8] Increased importance of constitutionalism has been claimed.[9]

Measures of democracy

edit

The table below shows European countries scored on 2 high-level V-Dem Democracy indices and 4 mid-level Democracy Component indices evaluating the state of democracy in year 2023 which were published in 2024.[10][11][12]

V-Dem Democracy Indices (14th edition)
Country Democracy Indices Democracy Component Indices
Electoral Liberal Liberal Egalitarian Participatory Deliberative
  Denmark 0.915 0.883 0.977 0.972 0.716 0.967
  Ireland 0.896 0.831 0.933 0.875 0.634 0.905
  Estonia 0.895 0.845 0.955 0.887 0.638 0.85
  Belgium 0.895 0.814 0.909 0.931 0.648 0.91
  Switzerland 0.89 0.844 0.962 0.931 0.882 0.98
  Norway 0.886 0.836 0.955 0.961 0.655 0.988
  Sweden 0.884 0.852 0.98 0.903 0.651 0.905
  Luxembourg 0.878 0.798 0.91 0.939 0.578 0.975
  France 0.877 0.81 0.93 0.811 0.632 0.939
  Czech Republic 0.871 0.805 0.933 0.913 0.585 0.88
  Finland 0.86 0.82 0.972 0.896 0.637 0.942
  Germany 0.856 0.812 0.967 0.941 0.662 0.976
  Netherlands 0.854 0.8 0.951 0.891 0.62 0.943
  United Kingdom 0.852 0.772 0.914 0.81 0.66 0.843
  Latvia 0.852 0.768 0.908 0.862 0.674 0.825
  Portugal 0.845 0.751 0.887 0.795 0.611 0.872
  Austria 0.844 0.773 0.926 0.893 0.65 0.827
  Spain 0.843 0.757 0.902 0.841 0.645 0.828
  Italy 0.837 0.757 0.911 0.904 0.747 0.911
  Iceland 0.834 0.744 0.896 0.87 0.659 0.845
  Slovakia 0.823 0.739 0.909 0.792 0.686 0.583
  Lithuania 0.798 0.735 0.938 0.868 0.692 0.822
  Malta 0.779 0.64 0.807 0.894 0.653 0.803
  Cyprus 0.774 0.636 0.817 0.869 0.574 0.837
  Slovenia 0.758 0.653 0.864 0.884 0.71 0.867
  Greece 0.751 0.582 0.752 0.835 0.641 0.868
  Croatia 0.733 0.639 0.879 0.768 0.625 0.68
  Moldova 0.713 0.608 0.86 0.8 0.665 0.93
  Kosovo 0.674 0.494 0.702 0.685 0.524 0.6
  Romania 0.669 0.501 0.72 0.674 0.657 0.35
  Bulgaria 0.666 0.588 0.898 0.76 0.663 0.914
  Armenia 0.634 0.422 0.611 0.811 0.442 0.69
  Georgia 0.604 0.473 0.761 0.784 0.542 0.803
  Poland 0.588 0.444 0.729 0.877 0.555 0.719
  Montenegro 0.581 0.467 0.785 0.771 0.561 0.759
  North Macedonia 0.56 0.359 0.584 0.598 0.61 0.64
  Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.512 0.346 0.616 0.655 0.527 0.678
  Albania 0.51 0.402 0.75 0.706 0.555 0.444
  Hungary 0.44 0.325 0.668 0.631 0.571 0.361
  Ukraine 0.415 0.249 0.5 0.654 0.58 0.761
  Serbia 0.364 0.253 0.579 0.747 0.55 0.486
  Turkey 0.287 0.113 0.245 0.53 0.416 0.195
  Russia 0.19 0.062 0.151 0.396 0.379 0.2
  Belarus 0.157 0.036 0.082 0.734 0.161 0.044

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Geissel, Brigitte; Kneuer, Marianne; Lauth, Hans-Joachim (2016). "Measuring the quality of democracy: Introduction". International Political Science Review. 37 (5). Sage Publications: 571–579. doi:10.1177/0192512116669141. ISSN 0192-5121. JSTOR 26556872. S2CID 151808737. Retrieved 2023-04-03.
  2. ^ Greenwood, Shannon (2022-12-06). "Appendix A: Classifying democracies". Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  3. ^ Democracy Report 2023, Table 3, V-Dem Institute, 2023
  4. ^ Ágh, Attila (2020). "Rethinking the historical trajectory of ECE: From the "original sin" in democratization to redemocratization". Politics in Central Europe. 16 (2): 367–398. doi:10.2478/pce-2020-0017.
  5. ^ Sitter, Nick; Bakke, Elisabeth (2019). "Democratic Backsliding in the European Union". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1476. ISBN 978-0-19-022863-7.
  6. ^ Cianetti, Licia, James Dawson, and Seán Hanley. "Rethinking “democratic backsliding” in Central and Eastern Europe–looking beyond Hungary and Poland." Rethinking'Democratic Backsliding'in Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge, 2020. 1-14.
  7. ^ Democracy Report 2024, Varieties of Democracy
  8. ^ The Future of Democracy in Europe Technology and the Evolution of Representation, 2020, Chapham House
  9. ^ Bickerton, Christopher (2018). "Beyond the European void? Reflections on Peter Mair's legacy". European Law Journal. 24 (4–5): 268–280. doi:10.1111/eulj.12287.
  10. ^ Democracy Report 2024, Varieties of Democracy
  11. ^ V-Dem Institute (2024). "The V-Dem Dataset". Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  12. ^ Coppedge, Michael; Gerring, John; Glynn, Adam; Knutsen, Carl Henrik; Lindberg, Staffan I.; Pemstein, Daniel; Seim, Brigitte; Skaaning, Svend-Erik; Teorell, Jan (2020). Varieties of Democracy: Measuring Two Centuries of Political Change (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108347860. ISBN 978-1-108-34786-0.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Democracy_in_Europe&oldid=1256420672"