Some PerspectiveAnalysis

Democracy

India's V-Dem score has fallen furthest in absolute terms

V-Dem Liberal Democracy Index: India 0.488 (2014) → 0.260 (2026), 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, but from a base already near the floor; India's is the largest absolute fall in the cohort.

On the most-cited cross-country democracy index, India has erased four decades of liberalisation in one.

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About this reading

This is one of 37 standing analyses drawn from the Some Perspective dataset. It is not dated commentary: it describes a relationship in the data that holds across the series, and it is regenerated whenever the underlying dataset is refreshed. The figures quoted here reflect the 2026-08-15 data vintage.

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Raman, V.S. Some Perspective: India's Economic Transformation. someperspective.info · CC BY 4.0 · data vintage 2026-08-15. Cite & download · All analyses