Monitoring the global state of authoritarianism

The Human Rights Foundation’s (HRF) Tyranny Tracker monitors political freedom across countries and territories in the world. Using a unique methodology consisting of a checklist of 45 indicators covering issues of electoral competition, freedom of dissent, and institutional accountability, HRF’s global in-house Tyranny Tracker Research Team classifies countries as democratic, hybrid authoritarian, or fully authoritarian. The Tyranny Tracker aims to educate journalists, policymakers, academics, civil society, and the wider public about the abusive nature of authoritarian regimes, and advance research and advocacy work in the promotion of democracy.

As a nonpartisan nonprofit organization whose mission is to ensure that liberal democracy and basic human rights are promoted and preserved worldwide, HRF has internally been tracking authoritarianism on a global scale since 2010 and continues to do so on a daily basis. This expertise has enabled us to develop a unique index that rigorously measures authoritarianism, while also being accessible and transparent. The Tyranny Tracker uses an innovative qualitative methodology, which relies on a set of thresholds that need to be met for a country to be classified as democracy, hybrid authoritarian, or fully authoritarian (see more under Approach). Our Tyranny Tracker Research Team consists of several Research Fellows, who work together with HRF’s regional experts to produce country profiles. Research Fellows are experienced professionals with relevant language skills and formal education in political science or international relations, and many are from the region they research.

The Tyranny Tracker classifications are updated annually, allowing the Tracker to monitor regime changes over time, and to highlight global trends.