Public admin score linked to liberal democracy
Comparing Rigorous and Impartial Public Administration Score with Key features of liberal democracy, gaps filled across 173 countries, 1948–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.85
- Holding size constant
- +0.81
- Countries compared
- 173
- Period
- 1948–2025
What might link these
A strong public administration may support the development of liberal democratic features by ensuring the rule of law and protecting individual rights. However, a careful reader should be cautious about potential confounders, such as education levels, which could influence both indicators. The relationship might also be bidirectional, with liberal democracy fostering a more impartial public administration.
Why this is not proof of anything
This is a correlation across countries, not an experiment. It cannot show that either indicator causes the other, and both may simply follow a third thing. This correlation could mislead by implying a causal relationship when, in fact, both indicators might be driven by underlying factors like economic development or cultural values.
The second figure above repeats the measurement with national population and income held constant. It is the more conservative number: a relationship that largely disappears there was mostly telling you that larger, richer countries have more of most things.
How this was measured
Both indicators were ranked across every country reporting each, and the two rankings compared — ranks rather than raw values, because a handful of very large countries can otherwise manufacture a relationship on their own. The calculation is arithmetic over figures already published on this site; the commentary above is drafted from the two indicator names and the resulting coefficients.