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Data for 2008

Deliberative Democracy Index, 2008

2008, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

V-Dem's Deliberative Democracy Index asks how political decisions are reached: whether leaders justify their positions with public reasons about the common good, respect opposing arguments, and consult a wide range of people before acting — on top of genuine elections. It runs from 0 to 1, and a higher figure is more democratic.

Deliberative Democracy Index, 2008 covers 175 countries. Sweden is highest, at 0.880; North Korea is lowest, at 0.008. The middle country reads 0.379. Against 2007, 134 values changed (69 up, 65 down), the same countries are covered.

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Deliberative Democracy Index · Data for 2008

HighestSweden

0.880

LowestNorth Korea

0.008

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the better end.

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Deliberative Democracy Index, 2008, as published. V-Dem Institute ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 175 countries · select a heading to sort

Deliberative Democracy Index, 2008: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1SwedenSWENorthern Europe0.880
2DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe0.879
3GermanyDEUWestern Europe0.872
4NorwayNORNorthern Europe0.870
5SwitzerlandCHEWestern Europe0.862
6Costa RicaCRICentral America0.859
7United StatesUSANorthern America0.849
8UruguayURYSouth America0.844
9FinlandFINNorthern Europe0.834
=10AustraliaAUSAustralia and New Zealand0.823
=10ChileCHLSouth America0.823
12PortugalPRTSouthern Europe0.821
13FranceFRAWestern Europe0.820
14LuxembourgLUXWestern Europe0.812
=15BelgiumBELWestern Europe0.810
=15CzechiaCZEEastern Europe0.810
17BrazilBRASouth America0.802
=18AustriaAUTWestern Europe0.800
=18SpainESPSouthern Europe0.800
20ItalyITASouthern Europe0.796
21NetherlandsNLDWestern Europe0.793
22GreeceGRCSouthern Europe0.770
23EstoniaESTNorthern Europe0.769
24New ZealandNZLAustralia and New Zealand0.767
25United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe0.756

02In 2008

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1Sweden0.880
  2. 2Denmark0.879
  3. 3Germany0.872
  4. 4Norway0.870
  5. 5Switzerland0.862

Lowest

  1. 175North Korea0.008
  2. 174Turkmenistan0.021
  3. 173Syria0.025
  4. 171Myanmarshared0.026
  5. 171Eritreashared0.026

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.379. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032007 → 2008

Since 2007

What changed between 2007 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 134values changed, of 175 in both
  • 69 · 65rose · fell
  • 41unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

Both years come from the same release, so a difference here is a change in the data, not a revision of it. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

  • One year of the 2026 release

    Every year in this series comes from V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. It can differ from what was first published for 2008.

  • 155 distinct values among 175

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.409. Countries sharing a value share a position too.

  • The position is ours

    V-Dem Institute publishes values only; the order is this site’s.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 175 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg (2008). Deliberative Democracy Index, 2008 [data set], describing 2008. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/deliberative-democracy/2008

0636 held

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