Democracy-Dictatorship Index

For a regime to be considered as a democracy by the DD scheme, it must meet the requirement of four rules below:[1]^:69[3]

1. The chief executive must be chosen by popular election or by a body that was itself popularly elected.
2. The legislature must be popularly elected.
3. There must be more than one party competing in the elections.
4. An alternation in power under electoral rules identical to the ones that brought the incumbent to office must have taken place.

Some regimes may meet the first three rules, but lack an alternation in power in its historical past; these regimes are classified as dictatorships because of cases where the incumbent only allows elections as long as they keep winning, and would refuse to step down if they lost. However, since they might also give up power willingly, the regime is marked with a type II value to signal potential classification errors where a democratic regime may be falsely classified as dictatorship.[1]^:70. This does not indicate cases of semi-democracy or semi-dictatorship.[1]^:71. The authors acknowledged that the last rule is more complicated to implement, but stated that it helps researchers to control potential errors and removes subjective judgement from the classification.[1]^:70

The first distinction made is whether a country has a government has legislative responsibility, i.e. whether a majority vote in the legislature can remove the sitting government without cause. The required majority needed to remove the sitting government varies between countries but is termed a vote of no confidence.[8]^:455 Some countries (such as Spain, Belgium, Germany, and Israel) require that the vote of no confidence also specify who is going to replace the sitting government to minimize the time without an interim government, essentially replacing one government with another. This type of vote is termed a constructive vote of no confidence.[8]^:455 Sometimes sitting governments will attach a vote of no confidence clause to a piece of legislation they want passed, effectively tying the survival of the government on the piece of legislation.[8]^:456

The second distinction made is whether the head of state is popularly elected for a fixed term. Who the head of state is can vary between countries. The head of state can be unelected, and the country still classified a democracy if it still meets all four of DD's criteria as the head of state is not used to classify countries as being either democracies or dictatorships but instead to distinguish between democracies.[10] Popularly elected means that the head of state is directly elected by the citizens or elected by an assembly which then elects them (an example being the electoral college in the United States). In Germany, the head of state is elected by regional legislatures and not popularly elected.[8]^:457 It is important to note that countries may have an office called "president" can still have the office be unelected or have the office refer to the chief executive. If the head of state is popularly elected, they are often called a president, and if they are not, they are often called a monarch. However, this can be confusing as some countries (e.g. Germany) have a head of state which is elected but not popularly but is called the president. Names alone are not how DD classifies democracies. It focuses instead on the powers and responsibilities of offices to classify and not the official name. The phrase "fixed term" indicates the once the head of state is chosen, they serve a known and a limited number of years before another election is held, and they cannot be removed from the office in the meantime.[8]^:456

The main job of the head of state is to pick the formateur. It is the person who tries to form a government, typically immediately following an election.[8]^:465 Some countries delegate the job of picking the formateur away one step to reduce political manipulation and so have an informateur whose job is to pick the formateur. More countries, such as Greece and Bulgaria, still delegate the power of choosing the formateur away entirely and opt for an automated process by which the head of state must choose the head of the party with the highest number of seats in the legislature as the formateur. Typically, heads of state choose the formateur as the head of the party which holds the most seats in the legislature.

The first distinction made is whether a democracy's government is responsible to the legislature. If it is not responsible, it is a presidential democracy. If it is, then a further distinction is made between democracies where the head of state is popularly elected and those where the head of state is not popularly elected. If the head of state is popularly elected for a fixed term then, the democracy is mixed or semi-presidential. If the head of state serves for life or is not popularly elected or a fixed term, then the democracy is parliamentary.[9]

The table below offers a full list of which countries are what type of democracy. Keep note that the head of state, chief executive, government, and legislatures can have their official names be seemingly contradictory to this classification. The name a democracy gives itself or its office does not indicate what type of democracy it is.

A presidential democracy has a government that does not need the majority support of a legislature to stay in power. A semi-presidential (mixed) democracy has a government that needs the majority of support from a legislature to exist and whose head of state is popularly elected for a fixed term. Parliamentary democracy is the same as semi-presidential but has heads of state which are not popularly elected for a fixed term, typically either monarchs or officials not chosen by popular elections. [8]^:457