Civil liberties equality links to broader democracy across nations
Comparing Varieties of democracy with Equality of Civil Liberties across Social Groups Score across 173 countries, 1948–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.65
- Holding size constant
- +0.61
- Countries compared
- 173
- Period
- 1948–2025
What might link these
Nations with more equal civil liberties tend to exhibit more robust and varied democratic systems. This suggests that equitable treatment of citizens is a foundational element for diverse forms of democratic governance. However, this doesn't prove causation, and other factors like the rule of law could influence both.
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. The correlation might be driven by a shared underlying factor that promotes both equality and democracy, rather than one directly causing the other.
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.