Czech Democracy Index
← Methodology

Country comparison

How the 8 countries (V4 + DE/AT + USA/UK) and 6 indices were chosen, why CZ + SK are highlighted, and which publication years are used. A read-only external benchmark — does not feed into our index.

Country comparison across indices

The /en/comparison/ page shows how Czechia stacks up against selected countries (V4 + DE/AT + USA + UK) across six international indices of democracy and rule of law. It serves as an external benchmark for our weekly index — not as its input.

Selected countries

8 countries in two groups:

  • Czechia (CZ) and Slovakia (SK) — visually highlighted, primary reference for the Czech reader (shared history, similar post-communist starting conditions, today different trajectories).
  • Rest of V4 — Poland (PL), Hungary (HU). They extend the post-communist context and show polarisation within the region (PL after the 2023 government change going through a rule-of-law improvement, HU continuing backsliding).
  • Neighbours — Germany (DE), Austria (AT). Consolidated democracies with similar geography and trade ties; a benchmark for "where we could be".
  • Global Anglosphere — USA, UK. Large Western democracies, often cited as reference; both are now ranked below Czechia by these indices.

The EU-27 average is deliberately omitted: individual indices publish it inconsistently and an unofficial calculation (simple vs population-weighted) would introduce methodology bias. 8 specific countries is more legible than an aggregate.

Selected indices

Index Publisher Year Scale Type
EIU Democracy Index Economist Intelligence Unit 2025 0–10 multi-dimension (5 sub-pillars)
V-Dem Liberal Democracy Index V-Dem Institute (Gothenburg) 2025 0–1 multi-dimension
FH FitW Freedom in the World Freedom House 2025 0–100 multi-dimension (PR + CL)
RSF Press Freedom Index Reporters Without Borders 2025 0–100 single-dimension (media)
TI CPI Corruption Perceptions Index Transparency International 2025 0–100 single-dimension (corruption)
WJP Rule of Law Index World Justice Project 2024 0–1 single-dimension (rule of law)

For a fair visual comparison, in the heatmap matrix UI all indices are normalised to 0–100 (via scale_max). The bar charts keep raw values on the index’s native scale (Y axis matches the original range).

Methodological background

Multi-dimension vs single-dimension

  • Multi-dimension (EIU, V-Dem, FH) are composite indices — aggregating dozens to hundreds of indicators. They measure "the overall state of democracy".
  • Single-dimension (RSF, TI CPI, WJP) measure one specific dimension (media freedom, perceived corruption, rule of law). In our CZ baseline these indices are used as a proxy for a specific pillar (RSF → media, TI → corruption, WJP → judicial).

The mapping detail to our index is in Structural mapping.

Publication years

Each index has a different cycle:

Index Publication cycle Current edition
EIU spring April 2026 (Democracy Index 2025)
V-Dem spring spring 2026 (V-Dem 2026 edition, data 2025)
FH FitW March March 2025 (FitW 2025, data 2024)
RSF May May 2025 (PFI 2025, data 2024)
TI CPI January/February February 2026 (CPI 2025, data 2025)
WJP October October 2024 (WJP 2024, data 2024)

Our CZ baseline (data/structural/2026-Q3.json) may have data from one edition behind for some indices — we don’t always incorporate every index immediately (see CHANGELOG v0.2.2 → TODO Q4 baseline). The cross-country page always uses the most recent available edition, so small differences between the cross-country view and the CZ baseline are expected.

Why CZ + SK are highlighted

CZ is primarily a Czech project, SK is the closest comparison (shared history, similar geographic and cultural context, similar level of post-communist transformation). The visual highlight helps the reader scan the pattern of "where we are + where the closest neighbour is". The rest of the countries are context.

What this comparison is NOT

  • It’s not a prediction — the indices measure past periods, our dashboard adds elements from the current week.
  • It’s not a ranking championship — small differences between neighbouring countries (1–3 points) typically lie within each index’s measurement error. Meaningful interpretation rests on trajectory over time, not on a specific year’s ranking.
  • It does not include political opinions — we display numbers from each index’s methodology, no editorial judgement of our own.

Update workflow

Cross-country data is updated manually after each new edition is published (typically 1–4× per year per index). Workflow:

  1. Track the publication calendar (V-Dem spring, EIU spring, FH March, RSF May, TI January/February, WJP October).
  2. After a new edition is published, fetch data for all 8 countries (Wikipedia aggregate + each index’s own page for verification).
  3. Edit data/cross_country/indexes.json — bump year, update values, possibly sub_pillars.
  4. Update source_note (publication date).
  5. Commit with message cross-country: <index> <year>.

It is not automated because this data doesn’t change weekly and manual per-country audit matters more than update frequency.