Political systems

Democracy

→ Open the Data Explorer in a new tab. This explorer seeks to make data on democracy easier to access and understand. It provides and explains data from eight leading democracy datasets: their main democracy measures, indicators of specific characteristics, and global and regional overviews.

ourworldindata.org

The classifications it uses are shown below, using a classification system from Lührmann et al. (2018)

In closed autocracies, citizens do not have the right to choose either the chief executive of the government or the legislature through multi-party elections.
In electoral autocracies, citizens have the right to choose the chief executive and the legislature through multi-party elections; but they lack some freedoms, such as the freedoms of association or expression, that make the elections meaningful, free, and fair.
In electoral democracies, citizens have the right to participate in meaningful, free and fair, and multi-party elections.
In liberal democracies, citizens have further individual and minority rights, are equal before the law, and the actions of the executive are constrained by the legislative and the courts.