Launch of the “Largest Database on Democracy in History”!

By: V-Dem Staff
May 15, 2017


In honor of this occasion, this week’s graph will take a look at the top three advancers - Tunisia, Sri Lanka, and Burkina Faso – for 2011-2016 on the Liberal Democracy Index as presented in the Annual Report. However, here we will look at the development of liberal democracy in the respective countries since 1990. The Liberal Democracy Index seeks to embody the importance of protecting individual and minority rights and judges the quality of democracy by the limits placed on government. This is achieved by constitutionally protected civil liberties, strong rule of law, an independent judiciary, and effective checks and balances that, together, limit the exercise of executive power. In the graph we can see that Sri Lanka and Burkina Faso had fluctuating development until the most recent period when the level of liberal democracy had a steadier upward trajectory after reforms in recent years. In contrast, liberal democracy was very limited in Tunisia until the Tunisian Revolution in 2010-2011 and the ousting of Ben Ali’s after 23 years in power.

For a more extensive read on the Liberal Democracy Index, take a look at our Annual Report or explore the new data yourself by using the Online Analysis Tools at at v-dem.net