governance · category
Party system
Party system
Countries covered176of 218 in the data
Categories5groups of countries
CorrelationsNonea label has none to compute
This is a label, not a measurement.It has no link (r) with anything. A set of categories can’t have one, and giving the groups numbers would invent an order and a spacing they don’t have. Instead, the section below shows how much of each measure lies between these groups rather than within them. It does this before and after adjusting for national income, which means comparing countries with the same GDP per person.
Whether political parties may compete, from the rounded answer of V-Dem's experts to "are any parties banned?". A one-party state bans every party except the ruling one and its close allies, as in China, Cuba, Vietnam or Saudi Arabia. "No parties allowed" means elections are held without parties or no parties are officially recognised.
What differs between the groups
The “between groups” figure runs from 0 (the groups are no different) to 1 (the groups explain all the differences between countries). Groups have no up or down, so this says how much the groups differ, never which way. For that, read the group averages. The figure also tends to rise when there are more groups. So to judge whether it could be chance (q), we shuffle the same labels among the same countries many times and see how often a figure this big turns up. Then we allow for the fact that many measures are checked at once, since with enough checks a few big figures turn up by luck alone. Groups with fewer than 12 countries are left out. And countries that share a label share a lot else. Adjusting for income rules out one third factor, but leaves language, region, legal tradition and history untouched.
| Measure | Between groups | After income | q | Countries | Groups at each end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freedom from party bans | 0.77 | 0.71 | 0.008 | 148 | best: No parties banned 1.66 · worst: A few parties banned -0.017 score (higher = fewer bans) |
| Freedom of association | 0.63 | 0.55 | 0.008 | 147 | best: No parties banned 0.768 · worst: A few parties banned 0.414 index (0-1) |
| Political civil liberties | 0.56 | 0.48 | 0.008 | 147 | best: No parties banned 0.776 · worst: A few parties banned 0.436 index (0-1) |
| Freedom of expression | 0.54 | 0.46 | 0.008 | 147 | best: No parties banned 0.754 · worst: A few parties banned 0.436 index (0-1) |
| Ease of forming a party | 0.54 | 0.45 | 0.008 | 148 | best: No parties banned 1.65 · worst: A few parties banned 0.309 score (higher = fewer barriers) |
| Governance score | 0.52 | 0.42 | 0.008 | 147 | best: No parties banned 0.522 · worst: A few parties banned -0.56 typical gaps (standard deviations) |
| Electoral democracy | 0.51 | 0.41 | 0.008 | 147 | best: No parties banned 0.607 · worst: A few parties banned 0.293 index (0-1) |
| Economy free of state ownership | 0.46 | 0.40 | 0.008 | 148 | highest: No parties banned 0.929 · lowest: A few parties banned -0.145 score (higher = less state-owned) |
| Independent opposition | 0.50 | 0.40 | 0.008 | 148 | best: No parties banned 1.64 · worst: A few parties banned 0.281 score (higher = more independent) |
| Liberal democracy | 0.50 | 0.39 | 0.008 | 147 | best: No parties banned 0.487 · worst: A few parties banned 0.165 index (0-1) |
| Political rights (FH) | 0.49 | 0.38 | 0.008 | 147 | worst: A few parties banned 5.65 · best: No parties banned 2.97 rating (1-7, 1 = most free) |
| Civil liberties (FH) | 0.48 | 0.37 | 0.008 | 147 | worst: A few parties banned 5.08 · best: No parties banned 2.89 rating (1-7, 1 = most free) |
| Free and fair elections | 0.48 | 0.37 | 0.008 | 147 | best: No parties banned 0.658 · worst: A few parties banned 0.257 index (0-1) |
| Women's political empowerment | 0.47 | 0.36 | 0.008 | 147 | best: No parties banned 0.796 · worst: A few parties banned 0.615 index (0-1) |
| Participatory democracy | 0.47 | 0.36 | 0.008 | 147 | best: No parties banned 0.391 · worst: A few parties banned 0.173 index (0-1) |
| Property rights | 0.45 | 0.33 | 0.008 | 148 | best: No parties banned 0.792 · worst: A few parties banned 0.604 index (0-1) |
| Voice and accountability | 0.45 | 0.33 | 0.008 | 148 | best: No parties banned 0.18 · worst: A few parties banned -0.962 index (approx. -2.5 to 2.5) |
| Civil society participation | 0.40 | 0.33 | 0.008 | 147 | best: No parties banned 0.734 · worst: A few parties banned 0.528 index (0-1) |
| Regime type | 0.44 | 0.32 | 0.008 | 147 | best: No parties banned 1.88 · worst: A few parties banned 0.846 regime category (0-3) |
| Adult literacy | 0.40 | 0.28 | 0.030 | 102 | best: No parties banned 85.8% · worst: A few parties banned 67.1% % of adults |
| Gini index | 0.16 | 0.27 | 0.015 | 139 | worst: No parties banned 36.5 · best: A few parties banned 33.5 index (0-100) |
| Light regulation (Fraser) | 0.41 | 0.27 | 0.008 | 142 | highest: No parties banned 6.59 · lowest: A few parties banned 5.62 rating (0-10) |
| Muslim share | 0.35 | 0.27 | 0.015 | 148 | largest: A few parties banned 53.7% · smallest: No parties banned 19.8% % of population |
| Economic freedom (Fraser) | 0.41 | 0.26 | 0.022 | 142 | highest: No parties banned 6.89 · lowest: A few parties banned 5.81 rating (0-10) |
| Christian share | 0.28 | 0.25 | 0.019 | 148 | largest: No parties banned 59.4% · smallest: A few parties banned 33.6% % of population |
| GNI per capita (PPP) is the control | 0.25 | — | 0.019 | 148 | best: No parties banned $27,350 · worst: A few parties banned $11,690 international $ |
| GDP per capita (PPP) is the control | 0.25 | — | 0.022 | 148 | best: No parties banned $29,350 · worst: A few parties banned $11,960 international $ |
| GDP per capita (market) is the control | 0.25 | — | 0.022 | 148 | best: No parties banned $17,610 · worst: A few parties banned $3,983 US$ |
The income rows are shown wherever they rank. Whether the groups differ in income is the question people most often bring to this table. They have no adjusted figure, since income cannot be adjusted for itself.
The groups, and who is in them
Largest first. A pair page shows the link within a group only if the group has at least twelve countries. So the smaller groups here appear on no pair page at all.
No parties banned 124 countries
Albania, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Rep., Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, The, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Rep., Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Fed. Rep., South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkiye, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vanuatu, West Bank and Gaza, Yemen, Rep., Zambia, Zimbabwe
A few parties banned 27 countries
Algeria, Belarus, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Congo, Dem. Rep., Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Arab Rep., Ethiopia, Greece, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Liberia, Libya, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Russian Federation, Sudan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Venezuela, RB
One-party state 13 countries
Afghanistan, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Eswatini, Korea, Dem. People's Rep., Lao PDR, Nicaragua, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Viet Nam
Many parties banned 7 countries · too few to check a link within
Bahrain, Hong Kong SAR, China, Mali, Myanmar, Rwanda, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic
No parties allowed 5 countries · too few to check a link within
Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Islamic Rep., Kuwait, Qatar, Uzbekistan
Source
V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
CC BY-SA 4.0 · licence terms · updated annual (V-Dem); V-Party per election, to 2019
Coppedge, M. et al., V-Dem Dataset v16, Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project; Lindberg, S. I. et al., Varieties of Party Identity and Organization (V-Party) Dataset. Read from the V-Dem Institute's vdemdata package.