Wikipedia

V-Dem Democracy Indices

(Redirected from V-Dem Democracy indices)
For overview of democracy indices, see Democracy indices.

The Democracy Indices by V-Dem are democracy indices published by the V-Dem Institute that describe qualities of different democracies. It is published annually.[1] In particular, the V-Dem dataset is popular among political scientists and describes the characteristics of political regimes. Datasets released by the V-Dem Institute include information on hundreds of indicator variables describing all aspects of government, especially on the quality of democracy, inclusivity, and other economic indicators.

Map of V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index for 2024

By 2020, the V-Dem index had "more than 470 indicators, 82 mid-level indices, and 5 high-level indices covering 202 polities from the period of 1789–2019".[2] V-Dem uses methodological tools to deal with the subject nature of ratings and their reliability.[2]

Democracy indices

edit

As of 2022, the V-Dem Institute published 483 indicators and republishes 59 other indicators.[3][4] V-Dem publishes five core indices with several other supplementary indices. The core indices are the electoral democracy index, the liberal democracy index, the participatory democracy index, the Deliberative Democracy Index and the egalitarian democracy index.[5]

The Electoral Democracy Index
This index measures the principle of electoral or representative democracy, including whether elections were free and fair, as well as the prevalence of a free and independent media. This index is part of all the other indices as a central component of democracy.[6]
Liberal Democracy Index
This index incorporates measures of rule of law, checks and balances, and civil liberties along with the concepts measured in the electoral democracy index.[6]
Participatory Democracy Index
This index measures the degree to which citizens participate in their own government through local democratic institutions, civil society organizations, direct democracy, and the concepts measured in the electoral democracy index.[6]
Deliberative Democracy Index
See also: Deliberative democracy
This index measures the degree to which decisions are made in the best interest of the people as opposed to due to coercion or narrow interest groups, in addition to the basic electoral democracy index.[6]
Egalitarian Democracy Index
See also: Political egalitarianism
This index measures the level of equal access to resources, power, and freedoms across various groups within a society, in addition to the level of electoral democracy.[6]

Rankings

edit

The table below shows V-Dem Democracy rankings published for 2024.[7][8][9]

V-Dem Democracy Indices (15th edition)
Country Democracy Indices Democracy Component Indices
Electoral Liberal Liberal Egalitarian Participatory Deliberative
  Denmark 0.916 0.883 0.976 0.97 0.713 0.965
  Estonia 0.895 0.85 0.961 0.901 0.634 0.868
  Ireland 0.895 0.83 0.932 0.87 0.633 0.905
  Switzerland 0.894 0.847 0.962 0.937 0.881 0.984
  Belgium 0.886 0.805 0.908 0.93 0.643 0.887
  Norway 0.884 0.839 0.962 0.959 0.656 0.986
  Sweden 0.881 0.845 0.978 0.907 0.653 0.908
  Czech Republic 0.87 0.817 0.952 0.91 0.59 0.873
  Luxembourg 0.867 0.783 0.903 0.937 0.568 0.971
  France 0.866 0.799 0.93 0.824 0.635 0.938
  New Zealand 0.863 0.809 0.952 0.847 0.654 0.804
  Costa Rica 0.859 0.805 0.952 0.885 0.641 0.931
  Australia 0.857 0.808 0.957 0.843 0.695 0.928
  Uruguay 0.848 0.769 0.912 0.777 0.815 0.842
  Finland 0.847 0.802 0.966 0.865 0.645 0.922
  Chile 0.844 0.787 0.949 0.719 0.644 0.94
  Iceland 0.844 0.759 0.907 0.908 0.662 0.902
  Canada 0.842 0.744 0.887 0.699 0.632 0.753
  United States of America 0.84 0.748 0.89 0.667 0.655 0.884
  Austria 0.839 0.762 0.918 0.862 0.624 0.851
  Germany 0.839 0.792 0.963 0.931 0.653 0.98
  Latvia 0.838 0.765 0.922 0.866 0.661 0.822
  United Kingdom 0.833 0.752 0.91 0.784 0.637 0.867
  Portugal 0.831 0.751 0.91 0.799 0.609 0.891
  Spain 0.829 0.745 0.906 0.839 0.635 0.841
  Netherlands 0.822 0.761 0.944 0.893 0.62 0.893
  Japan 0.82 0.734 0.902 0.934 0.562 0.908
  Italy 0.803 0.705 0.882 0.902 0.748 0.865
  Jamaica 0.803 0.684 0.848 0.787 0.604 0.731
  Brazil 0.801 0.712 0.9 0.617 0.628 0.944
  Taiwan 0.8 0.7 0.878 0.874 0.748 0.844
  Lithuania 0.799 0.734 0.936 0.877 0.679 0.809
  Vanuatu 0.796 0.686 0.862 0.741 0.566 0.737
  Barbados 0.786 0.67 0.848 0.842 0.298 0.926
  Malta 0.785 0.637 0.797 0.892 0.637 0.8
  Cyprus 0.774 0.651 0.839 0.902 0.566 0.831
  Suriname 0.768 0.637 0.821 0.715 0.581 0.764
  Cabo Verde 0.757 0.649 0.86 0.724 0.527 0.703
  Trinidad and Tobago 0.755 0.627 0.826 0.786 0.582 0.925
  Slovakia 0.752 0.584 0.754 0.766 0.648 0.37
  Greece 0.75 0.576 0.741 0.875 0.638 0.83
  Seychelles 0.741 0.659 0.901 0.83 0.305 0.948
  South Africa 0.734 0.652 0.903 0.642 0.571 0.91
  East Timor 0.733 0.549 0.72 0.569 0.552 0.715
  Poland 0.729 0.616 0.844 0.879 0.614 0.842
  South Korea 0.729 0.631 0.872 0.856 0.61 0.809
  Panama 0.726 0.584 0.794 0.576 0.524 0.737
  Croatia 0.723 0.619 0.862 0.779 0.624 0.681
  Slovenia 0.716 0.619 0.869 0.886 0.746 0.861
  Israel 0.715 0.617 0.869 0.808 0.601 0.773
  Argentina 0.712 0.553 0.76 0.73 0.591 0.535
  Dominican Republic 0.705 0.45 0.571 0.471 0.595 0.818
  Colombia 0.701 0.557 0.779 0.528 0.634 0.645
  São Tomé and Príncipe 0.673 0.565 0.841 0.673 0.565 0.671
  Ghana 0.669 0.567 0.848 0.635 0.369 0.813
  Nepal 0.669 0.522 0.76 0.585 0.583 0.611
  Solomon Islands 0.665 0.519 0.763 0.509 0.549 0.492
  Sri Lanka 0.664 0.486 0.699 0.671 0.594 0.617
  Lesotho 0.658 0.516 0.76 0.752 0.552 0.742
  Ecuador 0.651 0.446 0.639 0.366 0.754 0.442
  Kosovo 0.651 0.473 0.692 0.675 0.468 0.55
  Bulgaria 0.646 0.508 0.77 0.603 0.669 0.837
  Peru 0.634 0.493 0.761 0.509 0.604 0.405
  The Gambia 0.634 0.507 0.784 0.666 0.588 0.751
  Moldova 0.632 0.518 0.807 0.784 0.666 0.798
  Romania 0.629 0.445 0.67 0.679 0.621 0.32
  Namibia 0.623 0.515 0.821 0.436 0.467 0.698
  Armenia 0.623 0.414 0.61 0.802 0.411 0.688
  Senegal 0.617 0.462 0.72 0.702 0.586 0.889
  Montenegro 0.615 0.478 0.755 0.76 0.581 0.724
  Liberia 0.613 0.404 0.607 0.567 0.464 0.811
  Guatemala 0.597 0.469 0.768 0.327 0.594 0.594
  Botswana 0.594 0.478 0.786 0.675 0.478 0.427
  Malawi 0.58 0.482 0.823 0.51 0.585 0.745
  Paraguay 0.579 0.388 0.618 0.312 0.516 0.458
  Bolivia 0.576 0.314 0.461 0.593 0.628 0.473
  Maldives 0.564 0.423 0.714 0.584 0.48 0.705
  North Macedonia 0.563 0.374 0.61 0.596 0.588 0.587
  Bhutan 0.561 0.454 0.783 0.826 0.541 0.899
  Kenya 0.549 0.432 0.762 0.521 0.585 0.806
  Honduras 0.541 0.382 0.658 0.408 0.537 0.687
  Malaysia 0.517 0.362 0.643 0.709 0.538 0.673
  Fiji 0.516 0.414 0.772 0.706 0.439 0.789
  Zambia 0.51 0.392 0.732 0.603 0.65 0.877
  Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.508 0.342 0.613 0.653 0.517 0.614
  Albania 0.507 0.396 0.742 0.673 0.537 0.418
  Mexico 0.505 0.251 0.397 0.438 0.617 0.423
  Nigeria 0.502 0.315 0.553 0.507 0.613 0.659
  Benin 0.501 0.329 0.592 0.754 0.49 0.541
  Mongolia 0.496 0.389 0.736 0.653 0.402 0.746
  Mauritius 0.492 0.368 0.698 0.713 0.574 0.8
  Guyana 0.491 0.315 0.568 0.675 0.516 0.378
  Indonesia 0.483 0.326 0.606 0.538 0.592 0.811
  Georgia 0.48 0.328 0.615 0.726 0.507 0.751
  Papua New Guinea 0.461 0.384 0.784 0.461 0.514 0.507
  Sierra Leone 0.44 0.348 0.726 0.638 0.584 0.904
  Hungary 0.436 0.318 0.654 0.635 0.534 0.309
  Philippines 0.435 0.308 0.633 0.314 0.571 0.526
  Tunisia 0.434 0.258 0.496 0.805 0.508 0.751
  Ivory Coast 0.432 0.251 0.485 0.537 0.598 0.74
  Somaliland 0.419 0.271 0.553 0.307 0.518 0.59
  Madagascar 0.417 0.221 0.419 0.32 0.494 0.389
  Tanzania 0.415 0.368 0.82 0.753 0.548 0.681
  Singapore 0.414 0.343 0.752 0.805 0.132 0.742
  India 0.398 0.291 0.635 0.425 0.521 0.629
  Thailand 0.389 0.289 0.646 0.483 0.356 0.371
  Ukraine 0.389 0.233 0.486 0.638 0.575 0.791
  Togo 0.355 0.173 0.355 0.622 0.463 0.724
  Iraq 0.351 0.228 0.524 0.459 0.438 0.594
  Lebanon 0.348 0.207 0.463 0.379 0.421 0.557
  Angola 0.34 0.164 0.346 0.271 0.153 0.339
  El Salvador 0.339 0.092 0.137 0.264 0.451 0.268
  Kyrgyzstan 0.333 0.183 0.411 0.619 0.397 0.373
  Mauritania 0.333 0.135 0.266 0.321 0.542 0.579
  Democratic Republic of the Congo 0.327 0.133 0.269 0.418 0.377 0.549
  Serbia 0.315 0.22 0.544 0.736 0.552 0.494
  Pakistan 0.313 0.199 0.48 0.223 0.499 0.529
  Mozambique 0.304 0.171 0.406 0.495 0.514 0.456
  Central African Republic 0.302 0.1 0.186 0.284 0.302 0.309
  Zanzibar 0.299 0.261 0.69 0.67 0.38 0.753
  Kuwait 0.292 0.266 0.716 0.613 0.148 0.433
  Turkey 0.288 0.117 0.255 0.539 0.422 0.182
  Cameroon 0.286 0.14 0.33 0.512 0.239 0.238
  Comoros 0.282 0.107 0.228 0.602 0.521 0.425
  Guinea-Bissau 0.28 0.149 0.365 0.465 0.318 0.35
  Jordan 0.273 0.274 0.772 0.577 0.302 0.876
  Uganda 0.272 0.201 0.536 0.477 0.415 0.657
  Kazakhstan 0.272 0.134 0.326 0.539 0.291 0.5
  Zimbabwe 0.27 0.156 0.392 0.337 0.547 0.578
  Ethiopia 0.263 0.098 0.216 0.419 0.337 0.472
  Morocco 0.263 0.247 0.703 0.553 0.431 0.811
  Algeria 0.259 0.116 0.275 0.674 0.211 0.445
  Republic of the Congo 0.254 0.117 0.285 0.359 0.542 0.441
  Djibouti 0.25 0.121 0.304 0.544 0.377 0.378
  Niger 0.24 0.18 0.509 0.646 0.575 0.737
  Gabon 0.229 0.155 0.438 0.646 0.62 0.58
  Haiti 0.218 0.079 0.192 0.128 0.259 0.592
  Uzbekistan 0.215 0.078 0.19 0.435 0.196 0.422
  Palestine (West Bank) 0.214 0.117 0.323 0.541 0.469 0.177
  Chad 0.204 0.054 0.116 0.202 0.342 0.321
  Rwanda 0.202 0.09 0.24 0.521 0.39 0.588
  Bangladesh 0.201 0.068 0.2 0.323 0.243 0.293
  Mali 0.199 0.147 0.442 0.618 0.543 0.733
  Venezuela 0.197 0.049 0.101 0.263 0.492 0.023
  Libya 0.196 0.106 0.303 0.375 0.234 0.754
  Cambodia 0.186 0.056 0.133 0.206 0.207 0.183
  Egypt 0.186 0.129 0.391 0.328 0.214 0.304
  Equatorial Guinea 0.178 0.049 0.114 0.336 0.11 0.094
  Cuba 0.178 0.055 0.138 0.753 0.17 0.286
  Azerbaijan 0.175 0.054 0.133 0.34 0.102 0.093
  Burundi 0.175 0.072 0.199 0.264 0.322 0.132
  Tajikistan 0.174 0.05 0.12 0.197 0.144 0.136
  Vietnam 0.174 0.124 0.382 0.614 0.499 0.659
  Oman 0.174 0.14 0.443 0.571 0.388 0.189
  Russia 0.172 0.056 0.143 0.371 0.376 0.109
  Hong Kong 0.169 0.133 0.421 0.736 0.142 0.15
  Somalia 0.169 0.126 0.396 0.311 0.269 0.71
  Iran 0.167 0.092 0.275 0.473 0.092 0.324
  Belarus 0.161 0.036 0.081 0.764 0.146 0.06
  Guinea 0.161 0.075 0.219 0.436 0.395 0.22
  South Sudan 0.161 0.072 0.21 0.126 0.143 0.104
  Burkina Faso 0.156 0.129 0.42 0.525 0.391 0.218
  Nicaragua 0.153 0.019 0.022 0.271 0.295 0.017
  Turkmenistan 0.149 0.033 0.076 0.289 0.075 0.039
  Syria 0.145 0.054 0.155 0.23 0.194 0.085
  Sudan 0.135 0.038 0.103 0.188 0.291 0.157
  Laos 0.134 0.102 0.339 0.428 0.386 0.164
  Eswatini 0.13 0.097 0.323 0.241 0.379 0.202
  Yemen 0.127 0.047 0.142 0.087 0.166 0.132
  Bahrain 0.124 0.052 0.158 0.385 0.115 0.158
  United Arab Emirates 0.103 0.078 0.27 0.45 0.086 0.298
  Palestine (Gaza) 0.095 0.053 0.18 0.405 0.212 0.113
  Qatar 0.087 0.08 0.284 0.395 0.105 0.387
  North Korea 0.083 0.014 0.033 0.31 0.153 0.016
  Myanmar 0.083 0.016 0.041 0.21 0.34 0.195
  Afghanistan 0.081 0.016 0.044 0.077 0.027 0.073
  China 0.073 0.036 0.125 0.302 0.1 0.227
  Eritrea 0.068 0.009 0.02 0.322 0.024 0.071
  Saudi Arabia 0.015 0.047 0.187 0.449 0.081 0.258

Impact and usage

edit
 
Countries autocratizing (red) or democratizing (blue) substantially and significantly (2010–2020). Countries in grey are substantially unchanged.[10]

A variety of other organizations use V-Dem's dataset in the construction of their indicators.[11][12] The World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators also use V-Dem's data to inform their Control of Corruption indicator (includes V-Dem's Corruption index), Rule of Law Indicator (includes V-Dem's liberal component index), and the Voice and Accountability Indicator (includes V-Dem's Expanded freedom of expression, freedom of association, and Clean elections indicators).[12]

Digital Society Project

edit

The Digital Society Project is a subset of indicators on V-Dem's survey that asks questions about social media's political status and the internet.[6] Specifically, the Digital Society Project measures a range of questions related to internet censorship, misinformation online, and internet shutdowns.[13] This annual report includes 35 indicators assessing five areas: disinformation, digital media freedom, state regulation of digital media, the polarization of online media, and online social cleavages.[14][15] It has been updated each year starting in 2019, with data covering from 2000–2021.[14] Similar to other expert analyses like Freedom House, these data are more prone to false positives when compared with remotely sensed data, such as that from Access Now or the OpenNet Initiative.[15]

Criticisms

edit
This section is an excerpt from Democracy indices § Critiques of measures of democracy.[edit]
Data on democracy, and particularly global indices of democracy, and the data they rely on, have been the subject of scrutiny and criticized by various scholars. Gerardo L. Munck and Jay Verkuilen for instance, have raised concerns about the methodologies used by prominent democracy indices such as Freedom House and Polity, such as the concept of democracy they measured, the design of indicators, and the aggregation rule.[16] Political scientists Andrew T. Little and Anne Meng "highlight measurement concerns regarding time-varying bias in expert-coded data" such as Freedom House and V-Dem and encourage improving expert-coding practices.[17] Knutsen et al.[18] did not see evidence for time-varying bias in their expert-coded data and note the application of item response theory, factor analysis and estimates of uncertainties to limit expert biases while discussing concerns in operationalization of observer-invariant measures of democracy.

Political scientist Jonas Wolff criticized V-Dem for gradually abandoning a pluralist conceptualization of democracy. According to him, V-Dem has moved away from its original emphasis on the conceptual varieties of democracy and adopted an uncontested view of democracy as liberal democracy while also ignoring the limitations of liberal democracy.[19]

The V-Dem dataset does not cover some countries, namely: Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Brunei, Dominica, Federated States of Micronesia, Grenada, Kiribati, Liechtenstein, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Nauru, Palau, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Tonga, Tuvalu, and the Vatican.

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "New index rates countries by degree of freedom for scholars".
  2. ^ a b Hegedüs, Daniel (2020). "Varieties of Democracy: Measuring Two Centuries of Political Change. By Michael Coppedge, John Gerring, Adam Glynn, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Daniel Pemstein, Brigitte Seim, Svend-Erik Skaaning, and Jan Teorell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 226p. $99.99 cloth". Perspectives on Politics. 18 (4): 1258–1260. doi:10.1017/S1537592720003059. ISSN 1537-5927. S2CID 230623566.
  3. ^ "New democracy dataset to 'revolutionize' democracy research". 8 January 2016.
  4. ^ Tucker, Joshua. "Open data and (15 million!) new measures of democracy". Washington Post.
  5. ^ Coppedge, Michael; John Gerring; Carl Henrik Knutsen; Staffan I. Lindberg; Jan Teorell; Kyle L. Marquardt; Juraj Medzihorsky; Daniel Pemstein; Nazifa Alizada; Lisa Gastaldi; Garry Hindle; Johannes von Römer; Eitan Tzelgov; Yi-ting Wang; and Steven Wilson. 2020. "V-Dem Methodology v10". Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Coppedge, Michael; John Gerring; Carl Henrik Knutsen; Staffan I. Lindberg; Jan Teorell; David Altman; Michael Bernhard; Agnes Cornell; M. Steven Fish; Lisa Gastaldi; Haakon Gjerløw; Adam Glynn; Allen Hicken; Anna Lührmann; Seraphine F. Maerz; Kyle L. Marquardt; Kelly McMann; Valeriya Mechkova; Pamela Paxton; Daniel Pemstein; Johannes vonRömer; Brigitte Seim; Rachel Sigman; Svend-Erik Skaaning; Jeffrey Staton; Aksel Sundtröm; EitanTzelgov; Luca Uberti; Yi-ting Wang; Tore Wig; and Daniel Ziblatt (2021). "V-Dem Codebook v11". Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. Archived 8 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ^ "Democracy Report 2025, 25 Years of Autocratization – Democracy Trumped?" (PDF). Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  8. ^ "The V-Dem Dataset – V-Dem". V-Dem. V-Dem Institute. 2025. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  9. ^ Coppedge, Michael; Gerring, John; Glynn, Adam; Knutsen, Carl Henrik; Lindberg, Staffan I.; Pemstein, Daniel; Seim, Brigitte; Skaaning, Svend-Erik; Teorell, Jan; Altman, David; Bernhard, Michael; Bizzarro, Fernando; Krusell, Joshua; Maguire, Matthew; Marquardt, Kyle; McCann, Kelly; Mechkova, Valeriya; Miri, Farhad; Pernes, Josefine; Staton, Jeffrey; Stepanova, Natalia; Tzelgov, Eitan; Wang, Yi-Ting (2020). Varieties of Democracy. doi:10.1017/9781108347860. ISBN 978-1-108-34786-0.
  10. ^ Nazifa Alizada, Rowan Cole, Lisa Gastaldi, Sandra Grahn, Sebastian Hellmeier, Palina Kolvani, Jean Lachapelle, Anna Lührmann, Seraphine F. Maerz, Shreeya Pillai, and Staffan I. Lindberg. 2021. Autocratization Turns Viral. Democracy Report 2021. University of Gothenburg: V-Dem Institute. https://www.v-dem.net/media/filer_public/74/8c/748c68ad-f224-4cd7-87f9-8794add5c60f/dr_2021_updated.pdf.
  11. ^ USAID (2020). FY 2021 USAID Journey to Self-Reliance Country RoadmapMethodology Guide. [1].
  12. ^ a b "WGI-Documents". The World Bank. Retrieved 2021-06-27.
  13. ^ Mechkova, Valeriya; Daniel Pemstein; Brigitte Seim; & Steven Wilson. (2020). Digital Society Project Dataset v2.Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. http://digitalsocietyproject.org/.
  14. ^ a b Mechkova, Valeriya; Pemstein, Daniel; Seim, Brigitte; Wilson, Steven (2021). Digital Society Survey Codebook (PDF). Digital Society Project.
  15. ^ a b Fletcher, Terry; Hayes-Birchler, Andria (2020-07-30). Comparing Measures of Internet Censorship: Analyzing the Tradeoffs between Expert Analysis and Remote Measurement. Data for Policy 2020.
  16. ^ Gerardo L. Munck and Jay Verkuilen, “Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: Evaluating Alternative Indices,” Comparative Political Studies. 35, 1 (2002): 5–34. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.469.3177&rep=rep1&type=pdf.
  17. ^ Little, Andrew T.; Meng, Anne (2024-01-11). "Measuring Democratic Backsliding". PS: Political Science & Politics. 57 (2): 149–161. doi:10.1017/S104909652300063X. ISSN 1049-0965.
  18. ^ Knutsen, Carl Henrik; Marquardt, Kyle L.; Seim, Brigitte; Coppedge, Michael; Edgell, Amanda B.; Medzihorsky, Juraj; Pemstein, Daniel; Teorell, Jan; Gerring, John; Lindberg, Staffan I. (2024-01-11). "Conceptual and Measurement Issues in Assessing Democratic Backsliding". PS: Political Science & Politics. 57 (2): 162–177. doi:10.1017/S104909652300077X. ISSN 1049-0965.
  19. ^ Wolff, Jonas (2022-07-06). "From the Varieties of Democracy to the defense of liberal democracy: V-Dem and the reconstitution of liberal hegemony under threat". Contemporary Politics. 29 (2): 161–181. doi:10.1080/13569775.2022.2096191. ISSN 1356-9775. S2CID 250372421.

Further reading

edit
edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=V-Dem_Democracy_Indices&oldid=1283812678"