In 2002 a pilot State of Democracy assessment was conducted by Dr Chirwa, Dr Patel and Dr Kanyongolo from the University of Malawi. Since previous surveys had a limited focus and were initiated by external actors, there was a clear need to conduct an all-encompassing democracy assessment that embraced local ownership and community dialogue.

In light of the negotiations on accession to the EU, which strengthened incentives to consolidate democracy and provided the right opportunity for a democracy assessment, a State of Democracy assessment was developed in Latvia in 2005. Its goal was to encourage discussion and research on topics relevant to Latvian development.

Kenya's assessment in 2000—part of a series of pilot studies—was carried out in collaboration with Series for Alternative Research in East Africa by professors Njuguna Ng'ethe, Jeremiah Owiti and Shadrack Nasongo of Nairobi University. It identified social injustice, corruption and impunity as some of the most worrying problems in Kenya's political system.

The State of Local Democracy assessment in Jordan was led by Hani Hourani, Basem al -Tweisi, May Al-Taher and Hussein Abu Rumman of Al-Urdun Al-Jadid Research Centre (UCJR), who finalized the study in 2009. The researchers carried out fieldwork and desk research in the cities of Mafraq, Jerash, Rusaifa and Ma'an, each of which represents patterns of geographic location and demographics.

The State of Local Democracy Assessment in Indonesia was one of the pilot projects on democracy assessment in Southeast Asia. It was among the first in Indonesia to combine qualitative and quantitative methods in analysing local politics, and emphasized the importance of a citizen-led approach in local democracy. The project was implemented from 2011-12 in six regions that vary in the performance of local government, power relations, degree of political consolidation at both the state and society realms, and social as well as geographical features.

The State of Democracy in India assessment was conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi, India and the LOKNITI - CSDS Programme for Comparative Democracy, and the findings were included in the region-wide report South Asia State of Democracy.

International IDEA implemented the State of Democracy assessment in El Salvador as a pilot study in 2002. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of democracy in a country where the legacy of state violence, repression and corruption has proved hard to cast aside. Despite the establishment of a democratic system, the country had fallen behind on its democratic path by the time of the study, and important measures to solve the widespread poverty problem were still lacking. Nearly half of the country's population lived below the poverty line in 1998.

The State of Democracy Assessment Framework was implemented in 2006 by the Open Society Fund Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ten years after the first democratic elections, a democracy assessment was needed not only to analyse practical achievements but also to evaluate the existence of a democratic spirit within the divided society. In accordance with the Dayton Accords, Bosnia and Herzegovina is governed by a system of two separate entities (Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina).

National-level International IDEA democracy assessments have been conducted twice in the People's Republic of Bangladesh: in 2002 as part of a pilot study by a Bangladeshi research team from the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at Dhaka University and in 2008 as part of the region-wide report State of Democracy in South Asia.

In 2002 a team at the Australian National University began a series of democracy assessments to measure Australia's strengths and weaknesses as a democratic society. At the end of the project, called the Democratic Audit of Australia, they published a full assessment report in 2009 called Public Confidence in Australian Democracy and have since published a series of thematic reports.