Data for 2021

Judicial Constraints on the Executive Index, 2021

Name: Judicial Constraints on the Executive Index, 2021
Creator: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg
License: https://v-dem.net/data/the-v-dem-dataset/

2021, as V-Dem Institute’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Judicial Constraints on the Executive Index, 2021 covers 176 countries. Australia is highest, at 0.988; North Korea is lowest, at 0.003. The middle country reads 0.658. Against 2020, 133 values changed (54 up, 79 down), the same countries are covered.

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Judicial Constraints on the Executive Index · Data for 2021

HighestAustralia

0.988

LowestNorth Korea

0.003

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

176countries
1measure
2021the year it describes
156distinct values3 decimals, as published
Sep 26, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY-SA 4.0licence

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Judicial Constraints on the Executive Index, 2021, as published. V-Dem Institute ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 176 countries · select a heading to sort

Judicial Constraints on the Executive Index, 2021: every country, as published by V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.
derived
1	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	0.988
2	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.984
3	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.982
4	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.978
=5	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.974
=5	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.974
=7	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	0.967
=7	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.967
9	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.966
10	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	0.964
=11	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	0.962
=11	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.962
13	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.958
14	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.957
=15	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.952
=15	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.952
17	Chile`CHL`South America	0.950
18	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.946
=19	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.943
=19	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.943
21	United States`USA`Northern America	0.930
=22	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.926
=22	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	0.926
24	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.925
25	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.922
26	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.918
27	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.914
28	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.911
29	Canada`CAN`Northern America	0.909
30	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	0.904
31	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.894
32	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.887
33	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.886
34	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.881
35	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.880
36	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	0.877
37	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.871
38	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.867
39	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	0.864
40	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.861
41	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.860
42	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	0.856
43	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	0.852
44	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	0.844
45	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.843
46	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.842
47	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.841
48	Peru`PER`South America	0.829
=49	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.827
=49	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.827
=49	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.827
52	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.823
53	Colombia`COL`South America	0.820
54	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.819
=55	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.816
=55	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.816
57	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.815
58	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.812
59	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	0.810
60	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.809
61	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.808
=62	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.807
=62	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.807
=64	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.791
=64	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.791
66	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.789
67	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.785
68	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.783
69	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.780
70	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.767
71	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.764
=72	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.761
=72	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.761
=72	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	0.761
75	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.750
=76	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.746
=76	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.746
78	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.739
79	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.729
80	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.719
81	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.716
82	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.710
=83	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.696
=83	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.696
85	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.686
86	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.676
87	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.662
88	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.660
89	Kosovo`XKX`Southern Europe	0.656
90	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.655
91	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.645
92	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	0.639
93	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.636
94	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.635
95	Niger`NER`Western Africa	0.629
96	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.628
97	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.625
98	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.622
99	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.618
100	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	0.617
101	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.602
102	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.584
103	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.580
104	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.563
105	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.553
106	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.544
107	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.543
108	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	0.536
109	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.534
110	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.526
111	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	0.516
112	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.486
113	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.483
114	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.478
115	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.461
116	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.436
117	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	0.412
118	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.410
119	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	0.406
120	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.392
121	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.335
122	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.323
123	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.316
124	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	0.309
125	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.306
=126	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.285
=126	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.285
128	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.279
129	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	0.276
130	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.270
131	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.268
132	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.261
133	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.246
134	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.237
135	Somaliland`XSL`Eastern Africa	0.236
=136	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.227
=136	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	0.227
138	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.222
139	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.205
140	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.204
141	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.200
142	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.199
143	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.194
144	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.185
145	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.178
=146	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.160
=146	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.160
=146	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.160
149	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	0.156
150	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.154
151	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.152
152	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.149
153	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.145
154	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.138
155	South Sudan`SSD`Eastern Africa	0.130
156	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.116
=157	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.105
=157	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.105
159	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.104
160	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.090
161	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	0.079
162	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	0.073
163	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.062
164	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	0.060
165	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.057
166	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.055
167	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.043
168	Eritrea`ERI`Eastern Africa	0.040
169	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	0.035
170	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.028
171	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	0.021
172	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.018
173	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.013
174	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	0.011
175	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.004
176	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.003

02In 2021

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Australia0.988
2Denmark0.984
3Switzerland0.982
4Finland0.978
5Spainshared0.974

Lowest

176North Korea0.003
175Nicaragua0.004
174Belarus0.011
173Equatorial Guinea0.013
172Venezuela0.018

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.658. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032020 → 2021

Since 2020

What changed between 2020 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
133values changed, of 176 in both
54 · 79rose · fell
43unchanged

Rose most

Niger0.494 → 0.629+0.135
Sri Lanka0.681 → 0.809+0.128
Paraguay0.618 → 0.729+0.111
Seychelles0.860 → 0.952+0.092
Zambia0.587 → 0.676+0.089

Fell most

Myanmar0.506 → 0.028−0.478
El Salvador0.482 → 0.090−0.392
Afghanistan0.210 → 0.057−0.153
Mali0.637 → 0.486−0.151
Tunisia0.874 → 0.739−0.135

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 2021.
156 distinct values among 176
Values are stored exactly as published, to 3 decimals. 3 countries share 0.827. 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 176 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

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
176 rows · 4.8 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download judicial-constraints-2021-nations-inquiry.csv
↗
The publisher’s original
V-Dem Institute’s own file, on its own site.
V-Dem-CY-Core-v16_csv.zip

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 (2021). Judicial Constraints on the Executive Index, 2021 [data set], describing 2021. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/judicial-constraints/2021

0636 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Judicial Constraints on the Executive Index, 2020
176 countries
The year after ›
Judicial Constraints on the Executive Index, 2022
176 countries
All of them
Judicial Constraints on the Executive Index: every year
36 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

07Questions