The State of Democracy assessment methodology (SoD) is a tool intended for use by citizens to assess the quality of their democracy, and define priority areas for policy and democratic reform. Specifically, assessments undertaken on the basis of this methodology are intended to contribute to the democratisation process in the country of assessment through i) raising awareness about the strengths and weaknesses of a democracy; ii) providing systematic evidence about citizens’ concerns about how they are governed; iii) contributing to public debate on emerging priority areas with a view to influencing democratic reform.
Developed in 2000, in partnership with Professors Stuart Weir and David Beetham of the UK Democratic Audit, the methodology has so far been applied in no less 20 countries worldwide to date, and continues to attract significant attention from state and non-state actors alike. Developed as a global public good, the original methodology was published in the International IDEA Handbook on Democracy Assessment . Pilot or first generation assessments were undertaken in 2000 in Bangladesh , El Salvador , Italy , Kenya , Malawi , New Zealand , Peru and South Korea . A summary of findings these assessments is published in another International IDEA publication The State of Democracy : Democracy Assessments in Eight Nations Around the World.
Second generation assessments, largely undertaken independent of International IDEA were conducted in Bosnia-Herzegovina; Mongolia, the Netherlands; Ireland; the Philippines, South Asia (Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan), Australia, Latvia and of recent Mexico. Browse the assessment reports.
Both the process of developing the methodology, as well application of the methodology has led to the development of a SoD Network - that is; a network of experts who have applied the methodology, and continue to contribute to its further development through their experiences and lessons they have learnt from using it in different contexts. It is on the basis of the experiences, and lessons shared by this Network that the methodology has now been updated, and published in Assessing the Quality of Democracy: A Practical Guide. This guide is intended to inform the conduct of future assessments.
