This plot shows a measure of various democratic characteristics. The BLUE line is the overall average of each characteristic, with all countries weighted equally. The GREEN line shows each characteristic when countries have been weighted by their GDP. The RED line shows the average measure of a characteristic when each country has been weighted by population. The ORANGE line weights countries by GDP Per Capita. The PINK line shows the average for countries classified as Democracies by Boix, Miller, and Rosato (2012); the LIGHT GREEN line shows the average for countries classified as non-Democracies.
The above graph shows the average Vdem electoral democracy score for each country from the year 1980 to 2023, along with the average freedom score, gathered by Freedom House. The electoral democracy measure from Vdem tells us how well a country's democracy is doing in a given year. This variable is an index, derived from a weighted average of the characteristics shown in the plot below. While the line graph above show information from both Freedom House and Vdem, the bar chart was created using information only from the Vdem dataset.
In this graph, we can see a number of different characteristics of electoral democracy. Each of these characteristics are relevant to the overall average electoral democracy score for any nation in a given year. For more information on what exactly each characteristic means, and how it is derived, go back to the drop-down menu on Tab 1, or visit the Vdem website.
On this map, positive numbers indicate decreased democracy or increased corruption. Thus, warm colors indicate backsliding on the indicated measure.