Democracy and freedom are under threat globally, with data in the Freedom and Prosperity Indexes showing a steady decline in political freedom since 2012. In 2024, the so-called “year of elections,” more than four billion people in over sixty-four countries around the world are eligible to cast ballots. While these elections have generated tremendous public and political attention and are key to measuring democracy’s global trajectory, they are not the only determining factor.

Competitive political party systems are another key component to the future of global democracy. Policymakers, however, have not afforded parties sufficient attention or associated resources. Data demonstrates that this oversight is a grave mistake—robust political parties inform whether a political system delivers for citizens, serve as a crucial link between citizens and their government, and provide resilience against democratic erosion and backsliding.

Political parties as a core institution of democracy will help chart the future of every major geographic region, both in terms of freedom and prosperity. A better understanding of the state of political parties globally, the challenges they face, and how they are leading the way to entrench democracy in their countries, is crucial in devising actionable policies to support strong and healthy multi-party systems.

The Atlantic Council’s Freedom and Prosperity Center’s pathbreaking new series, State of the Parties, aims to accomplish that very task. Through a series of succinct, accessible policy papers, State of the Parties expert authors examine the state of political parties in each major region; show why a multi-party system is essential to democratic progress, freedom, and prosperity; and articulate a path forward for supporting them.

Led by our Senior Director Joseph Lemoine and Nonresident Senior Fellow  Patrick Quirk, State of the Parties delivers insights and policy recommendations from leading experts to enhance democracy-strengthening efforts and associated policy in all regions of the world. 

Featured content

The missing piece: Political parties are critical to democracy in Africa

As many as seventeen countries in Africa will head to the polls in 2024. This piece analyzes the state of political parties in Sub-Saharan Africa, using Freedom and Prosperity Indexes data to show why multiparty systems are key to democratic strength.

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Unloved but indispensable: Political parties in Europe

The experience of the past decade has shown that despite their unpopularity, political parties remain indispensable for the functioning of democracies in Europe—when they are present, plural, and organized, democracy is doing well. To prove this assertion, this paper will look at four telling examples in recent European history.

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South Asia’s political parties need internal reforms to revitalize regional democracy

This paper is the third in the Freedom and Prosperity Center’s “State of the Parties” series analyzing the strength of multi-party systems in different regions of the world.

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Trackers and Data Visualizations

Jun 15, 2023

Freedom and Prosperity Indexes

The indexes rank 164 countries around the world according to their levels of freedom and prosperity. Use our site to explore twenty-eight years of data, compare countries and regions, and examine the sub-indexes and indicators that comprise our indexes.

The Freedom and Prosperity Center aims to increase the prosperity of the poor and marginalized in developing countries and to explore the nature of the relationship between freedom and prosperity in both developing and developed nations.

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