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Research and analysis division of Economist Group
Scholars and analysts point to measurable indicators—erosion of institutional checks, politicization of the state, declines on comparative democracy indexes, rising tolerance for illiberal solutions, ...
There is no single country that all experts agree “has the best voting process”; different rankings and commentators highlight different strengths. Freedom House and the Economist Intelligence Unit ra...
The United States has been consistently classified as a “flawed democracy” by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in recent years, slipping in rank from the mid‑20s to the high‑20s as of the EIU’s m...
Major quality-of-life indexes use distinct mixes of objective statistics and subjective surveys: the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI) combines life expectancy, education and income data to create a ...
Nicolás Maduro’s twelve-plus years in power are documented by multiple international outlets as a transition from contested, electoral rule to a closed, repressive regime: international observers, reg...
Freedom House produces separate political rights and civil liberties sub-scores for every country and territory and makes the raw data publicly available; those sub-scores are the standard reference f...
Scholars and political scientists are sharply divided but broadly alert: many warn the United States has experienced measurable democratic erosion since 2016 and is at risk of "competitive authoritari...
Since 2020, multiple indices and reports point to a small set of countries that in democratic performance, most consistently named are Botswana, South Africa, Portugal, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Jo...