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India's V-Dem score has fallen furthest of its five-country peer group
V-Dem Liberal Democracy Index (v16, March 2026): India 0.488 (2014) → 0.260 (2025), a 47% decline and a fall of 0.228 points. Brazil 0.783 → 0.704 (-10%). Turkey 0.252 → 0.110 (-56%). Hungary 0.521 → 0.315 (-40%). South Africa 0.641 → 0.633 (-1%). Turkey falls further in percentage terms, from a base already near the floor. India's is the largest absolute fall of these five countries. Among all major economies the United States fell further in absolute terms, from 0.848 to 0.571. V-Dem's latest observation is for 2025, and the dataset carries it forward to 2026.
What follows. India's 2025 score of 0.260 is its lowest on V-Dem's series since 1950, and slightly below the 0.265 recorded in 1976, during the Emergency.
One of 37 readings of the dataset, rebuilt whenever the data are refreshed. Data vintage 2026-10-10. Cite as Raman, V.S., Some Perspective: India's Political Economy, 2004-2026, someperspective.info, CC BY 4.0.