Michael Runey is an Adviser in the Democracy Assessment (DA) Unit. His work at IDEA includes qualitative and quantitative analysis for the Global State of Democracy (GSoD) initiative, the Perceptions of Democracy Survey (PODS) project, the Democracy Tracker, and foresight and futures programmes in Asia and the Pacific. He was previously the coordinator for the SDG 16 Data Initiative. Michael joined International IDEA in March 2022.

Prior to joining IDEA, Michael worked in human rights, journalism, and community development. He has worked as an English teacher in South Korea, a hiking and wilderness guide for a community non-profit, and briefly managed a village-owned school for Mam and Spanish in Todos Santos Cuchumatán, Guatemala.

He has extensive experience with human rights and democracy issues in Eurasia, and has worked for Transparency International in Ukraine,  Meydan TV (Azerbaijan), Global Witness and the international human rights organization Civil Rights Defenders in Stockholm. Outside of International IDEA, he has contributed reports to Freedom House, and his writing on human rights and democracy has appeared at Dagens Arena, EurasiaNet, openDemocracy, The Diplomat, Sveriges Television, and elsewhere.