Features of the Economist Intelligence Unit index

Public opinion surveys

A crucial, differentiating aspect of our measure is that in addition to experts’ assessments we use,

where available, public opinion surveys—mainly the World Values Survey. Indicators based on the

surveys predominate heavily in the political participation and political culture categories, and a few

are used in the civil liberties and functioning of government categories.

In addition to the World Values Survey, other sources that can be leveraged include the

Eurobarometer surveys, Gallup polls, Asian Barometer, Latin American Barometer, Afrobarometer and

national surveys. In the case of countries for which survey results are missing, survey results for similar

countries and expert assessment are used to fill in gaps.

Participation and voter turnout

After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most

established democracies since the 1960s. Low turnout may be due to disenchantment, but it can also

be a sign of contentment. Many, however, see low turnout as undesirable, and there is much debate

over the factors that affect turnout and how to increase it.

A high turnout is generally seen as evidence of the legitimacy of the current system. Contrary

to widespread belief, there is in fact a close correlation between turnout and overall measures of

democracy—that is, developed, consolidated democracies have, with very few exceptions, higher

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