Democracy in Europe

Map of 2023 V-Dem Electoral Democracy Index for Europe

0.900–1.000   0.800–0.899   0.700–0.799   0.600–0.699

0.500–0.599   0.400–0.499   0.300–0.399   0.200–0.299

0.100–0.199   0.000–0.099   No data

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. ^{[7] [10] [11]}

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

By country

Further information: Democratic backsliding by country – Europe and Democratization § Democratization by country

Azerbaijan

See also: Corruption in Azerbaijan

Ahead of the 2024 Azerbaijani presidential election, Amnesty International reported an increased crackdown on the right to freedom of expression, repression of peaceful dissent, a coordinated assault on civil society, and the targeting of critical voices by President Ilham Aliyev. ^[12]

Belarus

See also: Belarusian opposition

Unfair elections were reported in Belarus. ^[13]

Georgia

Electoral fraud was reported at the 2024 Georgian parliamentary election. ^[14]

Russia

Unfair elections were reported in Russia due to political repression ^[15] and allegations of electoral fraud. Lack of freedom of the press resulted that most of Russians believe that the elections in Russia are mostly fair. ^[16]

Serbia

At 2023 Serbian parliamentary election electoral fraud was reported. ^[17]

Turkey

Limited political freedom of the press is reported in Turkey. ^[18]

See also

• Act of Independence of Lithuania (1918)
• Athenian Revolution
• Age of Liberty (Sweden)
• Constitution of Norway (1814)
• Constitution of the Netherlands (1815)
• Constitution of Belgium (1831)
• Constitution of Denmark (1849)
• Czechoslovak declaration of independence (1918)
• Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa
• Demokratizatsiya (Soviet Union)
• End of World War II in Europe
• Estonian Declaration of Independence (1918)
• French Revolution
• Glorious Revolution
• Magna Carta
• Greek transition to democracy (Metapolitefsi)
• Overthrow of the Roman monarchy
• People's Council of Latvia (1918)
• Politics of Europe
• Portuguese transition to democracy
• Representation of the People Act 1884
• Revolutions of 1848
• Revolutions of 1989
• Romanian revolution
• Rose Revolution
• Second Spanish Republic
• Second Polish Republic
• Singing Revolution
• Spanish transition to democracy
• Switzerland as a federal state
• Weimar Republic
• 1907 Finnish parliamentary election
• 1924 Greek republic referendum
• 1946 Italian institutional referendum
• 1989–1991 Ukrainian revolution
• 2018 Armenian Revolution

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. V-Dem Institute (2024). "The V-Dem Dataset" . Retrieved 7 March 2024.
11. 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.
12. Azerbaijan: Repression escalating ahead of presidential elections
13. Batura, Alyena (2022). "How to Compete in Unfair Elections". Journal of Democracy. 33 (4): 47–61. doi:10.1353/jod.2022.0046. ISSN   1086-3214.
14. "IRI Releases Final Report on Georgia's Parliamentary Elections". International Republican Institute. 23 December 2024. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
15. SAUVAGE, Grégoire (15 March 2024). "Russia's presidential election: Three Putin challengers but little suspense". France 24. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
16. Wilson, Kenneth (2012). "How Russians View Electoral Fairness: A Qualitative Analysis". Europe-Asia Studies. 64 (1): 145–168. doi:10.1080/09668136.2012.635485. ISSN   0966-8136.
17. "Serbia's ruling populists claim sweeping victory in election amid vote-rigging accusations". the Guardian. Associated Press. 18 December 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2025.
18. Akser, Murat; Baybars, Banu (2 January 2023). "Repressed media and illiberal politics in Turkey: the persistence of fear". Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. 23 (1): 159–177. doi: 10.1080/14683857.2022.2088647 . ISSN   1468-3857 . Retrieved 19 January 2025.