How elections unfold, voting rights expanded, and political competitors developed all over the world over the past two centuries.
Most individuals all over the world suppose democracy is an effective option to run a rustic, however they’re usually dissatisfied with how it’s working in follow and are involved about the place it’s heading.1
These worries are in line with professional surveys monitoring the state of democracy worldwide. Throughout measures of free and honest elections and different options of democracy, like civil rights and checks on energy, dozens of nations have become less democratic over the past decade.
But when we step again and have a look at the longer historical past of democracy — as we’ll do on this article — we see a broader development of outstanding progress. The world was deeply undemocratic, and regardless of setbacks, it stays far more democratic than it was solely half a century in the past.
That progress was by no means regular or safe. The rights and establishments that many people now reside below have been constructed by means of many partial victories and outright setbacks.
We don’t say this to dismiss the true points that many democracies face right this moment. Fairly the other. The longer perspective helps us recognize the democratic establishments that so many people all over the world proceed to worth, and the efforts which are mandatory to guard and broaden them.
That’s the focus of this text. We have a look at how the constructing blocks of electoral democracy developed over the past 200 years: how elections unfold, voting rights expanded, and significant political competitors developed.
Within the late 18th century, political leaders have been often chosen by inheritance, drive, or by means of negotiation among the many elite. Many leaders have been monarchs who inherited their place from their mother and father. Parliaments didn’t exist, or have been equally stuffed with aristocrats and bureaucrats.
Over the subsequent two centuries, that modified. Most leaders in authorities and parliament at the moment are elected. Some leaders nonetheless take energy violently (often by means of coups), however there are few monarchs left, and even fewer with political energy. Most members of parliament, too, need to face elections.
The chart under tracks this rise in elections, utilizing information from the Lexical Index project by political scientists Svend-Erik Skaaning, John Gerring, and Henrikas Bartusevičius.2 We’ll use this supply all through the article.
The chart reveals that hardly any nation had each an elected parliament and an elected authorities within the late 18th century. Solely two of the 76 international locations included did: the UK and the US.
Extra international locations started electing their leaders within the nineteenth and early twentieth century, however it wasn’t till the second half of the twentieth century that elections turned the predominant means of selecting political leaders worldwide.
Most not too long ago, in 2025, solely 34 international locations didn’t have elected parliaments and governments; the opposite 165 did. You’ll be able to see the breakdown within the small chart (click on to enlarge).
With the earlier chart, we additionally see that the unfold of elections wasn’t steady. The world noticed fast progress within the aftermath of World Struggle I, within the late Fifties and Nineteen Sixties, and on the finish of the twentieth century. However elections declined throughout World Struggle II and within the early Nineteen Seventies.
In the present day, the variety of international locations with elected parliaments and governments is 165, down from an all-time excessive of 176 in 2016. In recent times, army coups and civil wars toppled elected governments and parliaments in international locations like Afghanistan, Madagascar, Niger, and Sudan.
Nonetheless, this information highlights a serious change in how international locations select their leaders: these chosen by blood and thru violence have grow to be uncommon, and people chosen by elections are way more widespread.
On the identical time, elections alone don’t inform us something about who will get to vote in them. That’s why we have a look at voting rights subsequent.
Two centuries in the past, only a few individuals may select their nation’s political leaders. It was largely a privilege of the highly effective.
As we simply noticed, elections turned extra widespread within the nineteenth century. However the fitting to vote in these elections remained closely restricted: to males, to landowners or taxpayers, and to individuals of a sure pores and skin coloration or faith.
Over time, most of these restrictions fell away. Authorized obstacles based mostly on gender, revenue, and ethnicity have largely disappeared. Some others, particularly these based mostly on age, citizenship, and legal convictions, have remained in place. However throughout many of the world, the fitting to vote has been prolonged to nearly all grownup residents.
The following chart reveals this unfold of common voting rights. As a result of the authorized proper to vote doesn’t matter a lot in case your nation by no means holds elections, the chart additionally considers whether or not international locations elect their governments and parliaments in follow.3
We see within the chart that some international locations (equivalent to France, Mexico, Switzerland, and Venezuela) broadened voting rights within the mid-1800s — however just for males.
It wasn’t till a half-century later that girls in New Zealand gained the fitting to vote in 1893, making it the primary nation to have common voting rights. You’ll be able to monitor particular person international locations in this chart.
Progress remained gradual till the second half of the twentieth century. However then it occurred quick: on the finish of World Struggle II, fewer than two dozen international locations had common voting rights in follow. When the Chilly Struggle ended, that quantity had gone as much as nearly 150.
The chart additionally reveals that this quantity has fallen not too long ago. That’s not as a result of any nation restricted formal voting rights, however as a result of some international locations stopped having elected parliaments and governments altogether.
Taken collectively, this chart and the one earlier than present that elections weren’t the one factor that unfold the world over; so did the fitting to vote in them.
This brings us to the subsequent constructing block of an electoral democracy: elections and voting rights aren’t efficient if these in energy don’t face significant competitors. Exercising your proper to vote means you’ll be able to maintain your leaders accountable. It means residents have choices to select from, and to kick out in the event that they do a foul job. That’s the reason we flip subsequent to electoral competitors.
The introduction of elections has not all the time meant actual competitors. In lots of locations, outcomes have usually been a foregone conclusion.
In some elections, there is just one candidate on the poll and no actual political opposition. In others, incumbents face opposition however undermine the competition in different methods: intimidating voters, bribing officers to meddle with the ballots, or pressuring the media for favorable protection.
The place this occurs, governments not often lose, even after they govern badly. One core operate of elections — holding leaders accountable — is lacking.
However over latest a long time, many elections have grow to be far more aggressive: voters at the moment are extra doubtless to decide on freely amongst a number of candidates, and fraud, if it occurs in any respect, is much less prone to change the consequence.
Because of this, incumbents usually tend to lose energy, which provides them purpose to manipulate in methods voters truly need.
Within the subsequent chart, we monitor this by means of a proxy: we plot adjustments in electoral competitors by taking a look at the place elections not too long ago led to a change in authorities (additionally referred to as an electoral turnover). To do this, we tailored the information from the Lexical Index venture.4
The chart reveals that competitors for political workplace is a rarer and newer growth than elections and common voting rights. (You’ll be able to monitor particular person international locations in this chart.)
Within the late 18th and early nineteenth centuries, elections very not often led to a change in authorities.
There was some progress within the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in addition to a wave of political competitors after World Struggle I, when at one level greater than 30 international locations had not too long ago seen energy change fingers, particularly in Europe. However that light once more within the wake of World Struggle II.
After regular however restricted progress between the Fifties and Eighties, adjustments in authorities unfold quickly within the Nineties, reaching greater than half of all international locations.
Within the final twenty years, political competitors has elevated extra slowly. In 2025, 111 out of 199 international locations had skilled a latest electoral turnover.
The chart reveals that political competitors, as captured by electoral turnovers, has grow to be far more widespread. Voters usually resolve they’d like a change in who holds energy, and because of this, political leaders need to work tougher to win over voters.
That is not at all an ideal proxy. Electoral turnovers usually tend to occur below political competitors, however the two are usually not the identical.
Elections might be aggressive with out a change in authorities. Contemplate the case of Japan, the place the Liberal Democratic Celebration has been in energy nearly repeatedly for the final 70 years, not as a result of the social gathering engaged in fraud or voter intimidation, however as a result of it has remained fashionable and the opposition has been fragmented.
Equally, turnovers can occur with out competitors. Incumbents can intimidate voters, stuff ballots, and persecute the media, and nonetheless lose. The loss doesn’t imply that the election was clear; it simply implies that it was clear sufficient for the opposition to squeak out a win.
In a democracy, we’d anticipate governments and parliaments to be elected, nearly all adults to have the ability to vote, and elections to be genuinely aggressive. Within the earlier sections, we checked out these completely different constructing blocks individually. However we haven’t checked out when all of them come collectively.
So within the subsequent chart, we monitor the international locations that met all these situations concurrently. The Lexical Index venture classifies international locations as “electoral democracies” if they’ve an elected authorities and parliament, common voting rights, a political opposition, and aggressive elections. On the chart under, we name international locations that don’t have all of those options “non-democracies”.5
Till the late nineteenth century, no nation met all of the situations of an electoral democracy. That modified in 1893, when girls gained the fitting to vote in New Zealand, the place elections had already grow to be aggressive.
Different international locations adopted, however progress was comparatively gradual. Democracies didn’t grow to be a majority till the Nineties. By 2025, 117 international locations certified, towards 82 that didn’t. You’ll be able to see the breakdown within the small chart (click on to enlarge).
Within the chart, we are able to additionally see that the unfold of electoral democracies was uneven and marked by clear setbacks. The clearest expression of that’s the Thirties: there have been 20 democracies within the early years of the last decade, however solely 9 remained by its finish.
One other setback is seen extra not too long ago. In 2015, the variety of international locations that met all situations reached its highest historic degree, at 130 international locations. The quantity has since decreased by 13, affecting international locations from all over the world, together with Côte d’Ivoire, Nicaragua, and Serbia.
To date, we have now tracked the rise of electoral democracy by counting international locations. However the variety of individuals with these rights issues, too: if the democracies are small and the most important international locations are usually not democratic, then most individuals on the earth are nonetheless not dwelling below a democracy. So it’s value asking not simply what number of international locations are democracies, however how many individuals reside in them.
Within the subsequent chart, we see the breakdown for the worldwide inhabitants over the previous two centuries.
In 1900, fewer than one million individuals lived in a democracy, all of them in New Zealand.6
That modified over the twentieth century. Greater than 300 million individuals joined when India turned a democracy in 1950, and lots of of hundreds of thousands extra in different international locations did within the a long time that adopted. The variety of individuals dwelling in democracies greater than tripled from 1.2 billion in 1965 to about 4 billion right this moment.
Nonetheless, even right this moment, the world’s inhabitants is nearly evenly break up between those that reside in democracies and people who don’t.
And since the world’s inhabitants has grown quicker than democracy has unfold, the full variety of individuals with out democratic rights is increased than ever. Latest backsliding has added to that, with round 400 million fewer individuals dwelling in democracies than a decade in the past, equivalent to in Myanmar, Nigeria, and Turkey.
During the last two centuries, the way in which politics works has basically modified. Briefly, politics has grow to be far more democratic.
Because of this billions of individuals now have extra say within the necessary choices that have an effect on their lives: what their youngsters are taught in class, how a lot they pay in taxes, and whether or not their nation goes to struggle.
This doesn’t imply that everybody has these rights, that considerations about democracy’s future are misplaced, or that elections are all that democracy requires.
During the last two centuries, the way in which politics works has basically modified. Briefly, politics has grow to be far more democratic.
However trying on the previous and seeing how far we have now come will help us make sense of the present second.
The democratic establishments we have now right this moment have been constructed over greater than 200 years. It required going towards seemingly unimaginable odds, enduring setbacks, and urgent on after partial victories.
This historical past reminds us that democratic rights are by no means assured. Nevertheless it additionally reveals us that politics can change for the higher, generally past what individuals on the time may think about.
Acknowledgments
We thank Edouard Mathieu, Hannah Ritchie, and Max Roser for his or her feedback on this text.
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Bastian Herre, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, and Lucas Rodés-Guirao (2026) - “The rise of electoral democracy” Revealed on-line at OurWorldinData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260824-000123/the-rise-of-electoral-democracy.html' [Online Resource] (archived on August 24, 2026).BibTeX quotation
@article{owid-the-rise-of-electoral-democracy,
creator = {Bastian Herre and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Lucas Rodés-Guirao},
title = {The rise of electoral democracy},
journal = {Our World in Information},
yr = {2026},
be aware = {https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260824-000123/the-rise-of-electoral-democracy.html}
}
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