Presents an overview of the state of democracy around the globe today. See especially its Freedom in the World comparative & historical data. Free reports online assess civil liberties and political rights, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion, both for specific countries and around the world generally. Includes its flagship Freedom in the World reports 1998- (or as dataset from 1973-) and Freedom of the Press reports 2002- (or as dataset from 1980-) and Freedom on the Net (2012 -).

An international organisation of parliaments of sovereign states which seeks to promote parliamentary democracy and dialogue. PARLINE is the IPU's parliamentary database which provides information on national parliaments worldwide. Also data (from 1997-) on women in national parliaments.
More recently, IPU with UNDP has developed Indicators for Democratic Parliaments - https://www.parliamentaryindicators.org/ - to help assess the capacity & performance of parliaments

Free access to publications and a number of databases, including: Direct Democracy ; Electoral Justice ; Electoral Management ; Electoral System Design ; Gender Quotas ; ICT in Elections ; Political Finance ; State of Democracy Assessments ; Voter Turnout ; Voting From Abroad.

Organisation supporting democracy, political participation, elections and good governance in countries around the world.

UK based foundation founded 2001 by Anthony Barnett. Global interest in social and political issues, aims to challenge power, uphold human rights and encourage democratic debate

Global network and crowdsourcing platform of political participation/innovation, funded by the Canadian Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council. Focus on democratic organisation (practices or institutions that potentially advance ideals of self-government) and innovative organisations or practices. Aims to mobilise knowledge about democracy-enhancing practices and institutions

Golder & Bormann's DES version 5.0 covers all of the legislative and presidential elections in democratic states from 1946 through 2020.

Swiss effort, details of referendums back to 1790.

Seeks to measure democracy globally across all countries. Annual indices and analysis from 2007-

Useful introduction with links to data sources.

Longstanding project from the Center for Systemic Peace offering extensive data on regime type & regime changes 1800-
The Polity project has a major advantage for relating changes in institutions to events since it provides dates for all changes, while many alternative data sources offer only annual data.

Global coverage 1810-2000, used as the basis for publications by Tatu Vanhanen.

Highly regarded large-scale international project (HQ at Goteborg University, Sweden), offering publications, including annual report on state of democracy around the world. Underlying dataset covers all countries, earliest data from 1789. 450 indicators underpin 5 over-arching indices: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian, and collects data to measure these principles.
Data is summarised in an annual publication (2017-) called Democracy Report

BTI is a project of the Bertelsmann Stiftung. Analyses the state of democracy and economy in over 119 nations from 2003 onwards to produce a global ranking. Also country reports that analyse the state of democracy, the political system, political management, rule of law and economic development and transition.

Dataset of 42 variables measuring the degree to which governments centralise power. Also contains social and economic variables and measures of bureaucratic quality. Global coverage, 1960-2011

APSA project to assess the current state of indicators and indexes for measuring democracy and government performance. Free access to lists and assessments of current indexes used, plus bibliographies of articles on their usage and accuracy. Topics include measures of democracy, human rights, corruption, press freedom, state fragility.

Compiled annually since 2005 by Fund for Peace.

US based independent organisation. Assesses standards of governance and levels of corruption worldwide. The results are published in the Global Integrity Index and as detailed Country Reports - data can be downloaded (2004 onwards).

Key data from 30 or so OECD countries relating to governance and public administration. See also the links to resources under the various arms of the Directorate for Public Governance -
https://www.oecd.org/en/about/directorates/directorate-for-public-governance.html

Measures countries institutional characteristics through composite indicators built from perception data. The 2016 edition covers 144 countries and contains 127 indicators, covering 9 areas: Political institutions; Security, law and order, control of violence; Functioning of public administrations; Free operation of markets; Coordination of stakeholders, strategic vision and innovation; Security of transactions and contracts; Market regulation, social dialogue; Openness; Social cohesion and social mobility.

Independent research institute affiliated with the Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, focus on the causes and consequences of corruption and the quality of governance. Major & respected data resource covering all areas of governance and beyond

Measure of the authority of regional governments in 96 democracies or quasi-democracies on an annual basis over the period 1950-2018 (as of 2025)

Project coordinated by Bertelsmann Institute covering about 40 EU & OECD countries. Data from 2009 covering economic, social & environmental performance, plus indicators of democracy and governance

Anti-corruption NGO with 90 national chapters around the world. It is committed to raising awareness about corruption, advocating reform & implementation of multilateral conventions, and monitoring compliance. Its website includes various surveys & indices, such as the Corruption Perceptions Index, and its major publication - the Global Corruption Report (from 2001).

The WGI project is an initiative of the World Bank. Annual data from 1996- for over 200 nations using 6 measures of governance: political accountability; political stability and violence; government effectiveness; regulatory control; rule of law and extent and control of corruption.
For data on business corruption specifically, see the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys (2007-) - https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/enterprisesurveys