Despite the challenges, Tunisia emerges from 2013 as the biggest winner Tunisia has been named as the Arab world’s most democratic country in the annual democracy ranking by Global Democracy Ranking. The country is the biggest climber in the rankings out of any other country in the list, moving up 33 places since 2008. The rankings rate countries according to the quality of democracy, based on a review of a number of criteria including political rights, civil liberties, gender gap, press freedom, corruption perception, change of head of government and political party change. The Democracy Ranking is an annual ranking of democracies in the world. The ranking uses a multidimensional conceptual approach, integrating political and non-political dimensions of society in an assessment of the “Quality of Democracy”. These dimensions include political factors such as freedom and other characteristics of the political system and non-political factors such as gender, economy, knowledge, health, and the environment.

1. © David F. J. Campbell / Paul Pölzlbauer / Thorsten D. Barth / Georg Pölzlbauer
December 09, 2013
Democracy Improvement Ranking 2013*
Rank
of Democracy
Improvement
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
Country
Rank
Loss/Gain
Tunisia
Libya1
Guinea
Egypt, Arab Rep. 1
Niger
Zambia
Georgia
Tanzania
Kenya
Moldova
Philippines
Malawi
Sierra Leone
Thailand
Singapore
Lesotho
Brazil
Liberia
Kyrgyz Republic
Bhutan
Togo
Senegal
Benin
Bolivia
Bangladesh
Burkina Faso
Nigeria
Belgium
India
Indonesia
Colombia
Mongolia
Austria
Ghana
Macedonia, FYR
Nicaragua
Namibia
Panama
Armenia
Germany
Turkey
Morocco
Switzerland
Australia
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Korea, Rep.
Pakistan
+33
+6
+2
+6
+5
+5
+9
+6
+5
+5
+5
+5
+5
+9
+4
+6
+2
+7
+3
+1
-2
+5
0
+4
0
-1
-1
+4
+2
0
+1
+2
+4
0
+1
-3
0
0
-1
+2
+1
-2
0
-1
0
+2
+3
-3
1
Democracy
Loss/Gain
Score
13.6
13.0
7.7
6.1
4.7
4.6
4.4
4.1
3.8
3.4
3.3
3.1
3.1
3.0
3.0
2.9
2.7
2.7
2.6
2.5
2.3
2.3
2.3
2.3
2.3
2.1
2.0
1.9
1.8
1.8
1.7
1.6
1.5
1.4
1.3
1.3
1.2
1.2
1.1
1.1
1.1
1.1
1.1
1.1
1.1
1.0
1.0
1.0

2. © David F. J. Campbell / Paul Pölzlbauer / Thorsten D. Barth / Georg Pölzlbauer
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
Mauritius
Guatemala
Argentina
France
Serbia
Norway
Mozambique
Timor-Leste
Papua New Guinea
Uruguay
Yemen, Rep.
Poland
Uganda
Canada
China1
Russian Federation1
Finland
Jamaica
Lebanon
Romania
Malaysia
Chile
Central African Republic
Netherlands
Croatia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Denmark
Nepal
Slovak Republic
Portugal
Japan
Lithuania
Slovenia
Sweden
Mexico
United States
Israel
Botswana
Bulgaria
South Africa
Haiti
Estonia
United Kingdom
Paraguay
Czech Republic
Albania
New Zealand
Ecuador
Dominican Republic
Cyprus
Ireland
Latvia
Italy
2
-1
0
+3
+1
+2
0
-2
0
-2
0
0
0
-5
-1
-1
-5
0
-1
+1
0
-2
+3
-1
0
+1
-1
0
-3
+2
0
0
0
0
0
-1
0
0
-3
-2
-4
-2
0
-4
-10
-1
-4
-1
-1
-2
-2
-3
+1
-3
December 09, 2013
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
0.9
0.9
0.9
0.9
0.9
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.7
0.7
0.7
0.7
0.7
0.6
0.6
0.6
0.6
0.5
0.5
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.0
0.0
0.0
-0.1
-0.1
-0.1
-0.2
-0.2
-0.2
-0.3
-0.3
-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
-0.5
-0.5
-0.5

3. © David F. J. Campbell / Paul Pölzlbauer / Thorsten D. Barth / Georg Pölzlbauer
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
Kuwait
Peru
Spain
Trinidad and Tobago
Honduras
Burundi
Hungary
Syrian Arab Republic1
Greece
Sri Lanka
Madagascar
Venezuela, RB
Ukraine
Bahrain1
-5
-2
-1
-3
-9
-6
-3
-3
-4
-12
-14
-11
-10
-9
December 09, 2013
-0.6
-0.7
-1.0
-1.0
-1.4
-1.6
-1.7
-2.1
-2.4
-2.5
-2.6
-2.8
-2.8
-3.0
Green:
Country has
Green: Country
gained in
Green: Gain of
is among the 10
rank since democracy score
best
the previous
period
White:
Country's
rank has
remained
stable over
the two
periods
Red: Country
Red: Country is
has lost in
Red: Loss of
among the 10
rank since
democracy score
worst
the previous
period
1
Please note: The Democracy Ranking 2013 covers countries that are categorized by Freedom House as “free” or
“partly free” in the years 2011 and 2012. Therefore, scores for Bahrain, China, Egypt, Libya, the Russian
Federation, Syria, and Yemen are “virtual scores”.
David F. J. Campbell
University of Klagenfurt
Faculty for Interdisciplinary Studies (iff)
Institute of Science Communication and Higher Education Research (WIHO)
david.campbell@uni-klu.ac.at
http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/wiho
Paul Pölzlbauer
p.poelzlbauer@gmx.at
Thorsten D. Barth
thorsten.d.barth@gmail.com
Georg Pölzlbauer
poelzlbauer@ifs.tuwien.ac.at
Recommended citation: Campbell, David F. J. / Paul Pölzlbauer / Thorsten D. Barth / Georg
Pölzlbauer (2013). Democracy Improvement Ranking 2013 (Scores). Vienna: Democracy Ranking.
*
The Democracy Improvement Ranking 2013 compares the democracy ranking scores of 2008-2009 and 2011-2012.
3