<- Democracy Direction Index
VAT / 2026

Vatican City

Not assessed

Stable

2026 development data - not published research

/25
Institutional score

The score supports the assessment. It does not compute the status on its own.

Judicial independencenot assessed / 5
Media freedomnot assessed / 5
Electoral integritynot assessed / 5
Civic space & human rightsnot assessed / 5
Checks & balancesnot assessed / 5

Confidence: high. Confidence reflects evidence quality and assessment certainty, not democratic quality.

Direction analysis

The polity is not directly comparable with ordinary electoral-democratic systems under the current methodology.

What changed

No standard annual democratic-institution assessment is applied.

RETHINKK assessment

RETHINKK marks this polity as not assessed rather than forcing a misleading democratic classification.

Evidence

  • V-Dem InstituteDemocracy Report 2026: Unraveling The Democratic Era?2026-03-17 / 2026-08-30Source ->Supports: judicialIndependence, mediaFreedom, electoralIntegrity, civicSpace, checksAndBalances
  • Freedom HouseFreedom in the World 20262026-03-19 / 2026-08-30Source ->Supports: judicialIndependence, mediaFreedom, electoralIntegrity, civicSpace, checksAndBalances

History

2026not_assessedStable