Democracy in Europe

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Map of 2023 V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index for Europe

Democracy in Europe can be comparatively assessed[1] according to various definitions of democracy.[2] According to the V-Dem Democracy Indices, the European countries with the highest democracy scores in 2023 are Denmark, Norway and Sweden, meanwhile the European countries with lowest democracy scores in 2023 are Belarus, Russia and Turkey.[3]

Changes in democracy

After the fall of Communism most countries in Central and Eastern Europe either democratized or re-democratized.[4] Some democratic backsliding can be observed in parts of Europe, including Hungary and Poland.[5][6] The V-Dem Democracy Report identified for the year 2023 Montenegro and Kosovo as cases of stand-alone democratization and North Macedonia as a case of U-Turn democratization, while Poland as a small but statistically insignificant uptick in liberal democracy index.[7] Some view European democracies have become more consensual and less majoritarian over time.[8] Increased importance of constitutionalism has been claimed.[9]

Measures of democracy

The table below shows European countries scored on 2 high-level V-Dem Democracy indices and 4 mid-level Democracy Component indices evaluating the state of democracy in year 2023 which were published in 2024.[10][11][12]

V-Dem Democracy Indices (14th edition)
Country Democracy Indices Democracy Component Indices
Electoral Liberal Liberal Egalitarian Participatory Deliberative
 Denmark 0.915 0.883 0.977 0.972 0.716 0.967
 Ireland 0.896 0.831 0.933 0.875 0.634 0.905
 Estonia 0.895 0.845 0.955 0.887 0.638 0.85
 Belgium 0.895 0.814 0.909 0.931 0.648 0.91
 Switzerland 0.89 0.844 0.962 0.931 0.882 0.98
 Norway 0.886 0.836 0.955 0.961 0.655 0.988
 Sweden 0.884 0.852 0.98 0.903 0.651 0.905
 Luxembourg 0.878 0.798 0.91 0.939 0.578 0.975
 France 0.877 0.81 0.93 0.811 0.632 0.939
 Czech Republic 0.871 0.805 0.933 0.913 0.585 0.88
 Finland 0.86 0.82 0.972 0.896 0.637 0.942
 Germany 0.856 0.812 0.967 0.941 0.662 0.976
 Netherlands 0.854 0.8 0.951 0.891 0.62 0.943
 United Kingdom 0.852 0.772 0.914 0.81 0.66 0.843
 Latvia 0.852 0.768 0.908 0.862 0.674 0.825
 Portugal 0.845 0.751 0.887 0.795 0.611 0.872
 Austria 0.844 0.773 0.926 0.893 0.65 0.827
 Spain 0.843 0.757 0.902 0.841 0.645 0.828
 Italy 0.837 0.757 0.911 0.904 0.747 0.911
 Iceland 0.834 0.744 0.896 0.87 0.659 0.845
 Slovakia 0.823 0.739 0.909 0.792 0.686 0.583
 Lithuania 0.798 0.735 0.938 0.868 0.692 0.822
 Malta 0.779 0.64 0.807 0.894 0.653 0.803
 Cyprus 0.774 0.636 0.817 0.869 0.574 0.837
 Slovenia 0.758 0.653 0.864 0.884 0.71 0.867
 Greece 0.751 0.582 0.752 0.835 0.641 0.868
 Croatia 0.733 0.639 0.879 0.768 0.625 0.68
 Moldova 0.713 0.608 0.86 0.8 0.665 0.93
 Kosovo 0.674 0.494 0.702 0.685 0.524 0.6
 Romania 0.669 0.501 0.72 0.674 0.657 0.35
 Bulgaria 0.666 0.588 0.898 0.76 0.663 0.914
 Armenia 0.634 0.422 0.611 0.811 0.442 0.69
 Georgia 0.604 0.473 0.761 0.784 0.542 0.803
 Poland 0.588 0.444 0.729 0.877 0.555 0.719
 Montenegro 0.581 0.467 0.785 0.771 0.561 0.759
 North Macedonia 0.56 0.359 0.584 0.598 0.61 0.64
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.512 0.346 0.616 0.655 0.527 0.678
 Albania 0.51 0.402 0.75 0.706 0.555 0.444
 Hungary 0.44 0.325 0.668 0.631 0.571 0.361
 Ukraine 0.415 0.249 0.5 0.654 0.58 0.761
 Serbia 0.364 0.253 0.579 0.747 0.55 0.486
 Turkey 0.287 0.113 0.245 0.53 0.416 0.195
 Russia 0.19 0.062 0.151 0.396 0.379 0.2
 Belarus 0.157 0.036 0.082 0.734 0.161 0.044

See also

References

  1. ^ Geissel, Brigitte; Kneuer, Marianne; Lauth, Hans-Joachim (2016). "Measuring the quality of democracy: Introduction". International Political Science Review. 37 (5). Sage Publications: 571–579. doi:10.1177/0192512116669141. ISSN 0192-5121. JSTOR 26556872. S2CID 151808737. Retrieved 2023-04-03.
  2. ^ Greenwood, Shannon (2022-12-06). "Appendix A: Classifying democracies". Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  3. ^ Democracy Report 2023, Table 3, V-Dem Institute, 2023
  4. ^ Ágh, Attila (2020). "Rethinking the historical trajectory of ECE: From the "original sin" in democratization to redemocratization". Politics in Central Europe. 16 (2): 367–398. doi:10.2478/pce-2020-0017.
  5. ^ Sitter, Nick; Bakke, Elisabeth (2019). "Democratic Backsliding in the European Union". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1476. ISBN 978-0-19-022863-7.
  6. ^ Cianetti, Licia, James Dawson, and Seán Hanley. "Rethinking “democratic backsliding” in Central and Eastern Europe–looking beyond Hungary and Poland." Rethinking'Democratic Backsliding'in Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge, 2020. 1-14.
  7. ^ Democracy Report 2024, Varieties of Democracy
  8. ^ The Future of Democracy in Europe Technology and the Evolution of Representation, 2020, Chapham House
  9. ^ Bickerton, Christopher (2018). "Beyond the European void? Reflections on Peter Mair's legacy". European Law Journal. 24 (4–5): 268–280. doi:10.1111/eulj.12287.
  10. ^ Democracy Report 2024, Varieties of Democracy
  11. ^ V-Dem Institute (2024). "The V-Dem Dataset". Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  12. ^ Coppedge, Michael; Gerring, John; Glynn, Adam; Knutsen, Carl Henrik; Lindberg, Staffan I.; Pemstein, Daniel; Seim, Brigitte; Skaaning, Svend-Erik; Teorell, Jan (2020). Varieties of Democracy: Measuring Two Centuries of Political Change (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108347860. ISBN 978-1-108-34786-0.
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