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The Global State of Democracy Initiative

International IDEA launched the Global State of Democracy (GSoD) Initiative in 2016. This Initiative provides evidence-based, balanced analysis and data on the state and quality of democracy for 173 countries across the world. It aims to contribute to the public debate on democracy and inform policy interventions to strengthen democracy. The Initiative’s primary knowledge products are the Democracy Tracker, the Global State of Democracy (GSoD) Indices, and the Global State of Democracy (GSoD) Reports. The Initiative also includes regional partnership networks and research and advocacy related to Sustainable Development Goal 16.

Democracy Tracker

A monthly-updated qualitative dataset that monitors the most important democracy and human rights-related developments in 173 countries.

The Democracy Tracker provides event-centric, monthly information on democracy and human rights developments in 173 countries. Event reports include a description of the event, indications of the specific aspects of democracy that have been impacted, the magnitude of the impact, links to original sources and keywords to enable further research. Past event reports are available as a searchable and downloadable archive.

Each country profile page offers a context-setting socio-political profile, basic background information, an overview of the extent to which the country has ratified core human rights treaties, and our latest quantitative scores of democratic performance. It also features monthly event reports that are organized by the four categories in the Global State of Democracy’s conceptual framework, signaling the specific aspects of democracy most impacted by particular events.

Global State of Democracy Indices

An annually-updated quantitative dataset that measures the quality of democracy in 173 countries around the world.
GSoD Indices

The Global State of Democracy Indices (GSoD Indices) measure performance across a broad range of indicators of democracy, covering 173 countries from 1975–2022. The GSoD Indices are built on a theoretical framework that organizes specific measures of aspects of democratic performance into five four-level categories: Representation, Rights, Rule of Law, and Participation. These categories are considered individually and are not combined into a single score for democracy.

The GSoD Indices are composite measures that are built from 157 individual indicators collected by other organizations using different types of sources, including expert surveys, standards-based coding by research groups and analysts, and observational data. The GSoD indices include estimated values for 28 indicators (categories and factors) per country per year. All the indicators are scaled to vary between 0 and 1, with 0 representing the lowest achievement in the whole sample and 1 the highest.

Global State of Democracy Reports

The Global State of Democracy 2023: The New Checks and Balances

International IDEA’s Global State of Democracy Report 2023 provides an update, looking primarily at changes between 2017 and 2022, and specifically examines the role of counterveiling institutions in what have been the most important recent global and regional advances and declines in key indicators of democracy.

Annual reports
In Focus reports
Democracy notes and commentary

Donors

The Global State of Democracy Initiative is also supported by contributions of International IDEA Member States

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