StIx

Composite Index: Three Dimensions

The Stateness Index is a tool for measuring stateness and state quality that includes country-ranking through aggregated and disaggregated data to advance performance comparison and policy analysis.

We provide a composite index that compiles three central dimensions as main components – the monopoly of law, monopoly of violence and monopoly of administration – into a single index and simultaneously keeps the multidimensionality of stateness through disaggregated scores.

Drawing on data from the Varieties-of-Democracy-Project (V-Dem), the index offers data for more than 170 countries in the period between 1950 until today. One exceptional strength of our index rests on both country and year coverage that surpasses existing indices that measure stateness by far.

The StIx data set can be visualised on the homepage, edited according to own selection criteria and downloaded.

Two layers of conceptualization and operationalization

The innovation of the Stateness Index is the distinction between two layers of conceptualization and operationalization: the first layer of the concept presents the formal state and stateness that is measured through a set of indicators that represent formal or “official” institutions. The second layer of informality enriches the formal concept with informal institutions that exist alongside the formal institutional framework of a state. The inclusion of the second layer of measurement enhances the concept and captures the “reality” of stateness more accurately than the sole measurement of formal institutions.

Defining State and Stateness

The State is an institutionalized social and political order and organization of hierarchical authority that is in exclusive control of the Monopoly of Law, Monopoly of Violence and Monopoly of Administration throughout a given territory and its inhabitants.

Stateness as the performance of institutions denotes that a state can insert and uphold the laws enacted by the regime, possesses the means necessary to control both territory and populations and commands a bureaucratic infrastructure to implement and exert territorial sovereignty throughout the state territory.

Monopoly of Law, Monopoly of Violence, Monopoly of Administration

The three monopolies/dimensions - Monopoly of Law, Monopoly of Violence, Monopoly of Administration - capture the central functions of the state: legislative, judiciary and executive. These are represented by central institutions. While the first two functions are linked to parliament (rule making) and courts (rule control and interpretation), the executive is divided into the function of enforcement (military, police) and implementation (government and state bureaucracy).

Two layers of Measurement: Formal and informal Institutions

In a comprehensive understanding of the state, empirical cases are always a mixture of formal and informal institutions and practices, which together shape the specific appearance of the state.

Formal institutions legally construct a state through written rules and regulations that are implemented and enforced by the state. The authority of informal institutions is not based or originated from the state´s sovereign claim to the monopoly of law but evolves from the “power of the facts” as actual enforcement power of non-state actors and groups that enables them to legislate and enforce their own rules.

The impact formal and informal institutions have on each other varies significantly. The impact is ambiguous because it depends on a multitude of factors like prevalence, autonomy, role, and authority of non-state legal orders, which in turn vary across contexts, institutional settings, and dynamic factors.

For our Index, we oversimplify the interactions between state and informality with a restriction to competing or conflictual relations and negative effects between formal and informal institutions.

To learn about Aggregation and Typology, click here. The Typology of StIx is primarily designed to outline discrepancies between types (high functioning to collapsed state), not within types.

The table below displays the Stateness Ranking for 2023 based on the total Value of the Context Measurement.

Ranking 2023 - Context Measurement

Rank	Country	Total Value	Classification	Monopoly of Law	Monopoly of Violence	Monopoly of Administration
1	Singapore	0,92	High functioning State	0,87	0,96	0,93
2	Estonia	0,92	High functioning State	0,93	0,96	0,86
3	Denmark	0,91	High functioning State	0,91	0,92	0,89
4	Germany	0,90	High functioning State	0,94	0,91	0,86
5	Luxembourg	0,90	High functioning State	0,87	0,97	0,87
6	Netherlands	0,90	High functioning State	0,90	0,93	0,88
7	New Zealand	0,90	High functioning State	0,91	0,93	0,85
8	Seychelles	0,89	High functioning State	0,91	0,92	0,84
9	United Kingdom	0,89	High functioning State	0,90	0,93	0,83
10	Belgium	0,88	High functioning State	0,89	0,91	0,85
11	Norway	0,88	High functioning State	0,87	0,87	0,89
12	Uruguay	0,87	High functioning State	0,90	0,94	0,78
13	Sweden	0,87	High functioning State	0,88	0,91	0,83
14	Finland	0,87	High functioning State	0,88	0,86	0,87
15	Australia	0,87	High functioning State	0,93	0,79	0,90
16	Japan	0,87	High functioning State	0,84	0,86	0,90
17	Austria	0,86	High functioning State	0,90	0,90	0,80
18	Switzerland	0,86	High functioning State	0,92	0,81	0,85
19	Czechia	0,86	High functioning State	0,81	0,97	0,80
20	France	0,85	High functioning State	0,88	0,81	0,87
21	United States of America	0,85	High functioning State	0,90	0,83	0,83
22	Spain	0,85	High functioning State	0,89	0,95	0,73
23	Canada	0,85	High functioning State	0,86	0,87	0,82
24	Latvia	0,85	High functioning State	0,87	0,86	0,82
25	Malta	0,85	High functioning State	0,86	0,90	0,79
26	Slovenia	0,85	High functioning State	0,83	0,90	0,82
27	Portugal	0,85	High functioning State	0,86	0,91	0,78
28	Lithuania	0,85	High functioning State	0,88	0,84	0,82
29	Barbados	0,84	High functioning State	0,81	0,93	0,79
30	Ireland	0,84	High functioning State	0,83	0,86	0,83
31	Costa Rica	0,83	High functioning State	0,89	0,90	0,72
32	United Arab Emirates	0,83	High functioning State	0,85	0,87	0,76
33	Slovakia	0,82	High functioning State	0,83	0,93	0,72
34	Iceland	0,81	High functioning State	0,87	0,74	0,82
35	Poland	0,80	High functioning State	0,86	0,85	0,72
36	South Korea	0,80	High functioning State	0,80	0,84	0,77
37	Jamaica	0,80	High functioning State	0,85	0,81	0,74
38	Greece	0,79	High functioning State	0,80	0,79	0,79
39	Chile	0,79	High functioning State	0,88	0,80	0,71
40	Taiwan	0,78	High functioning State	0,75	0,81	0,78
41	Italy	0,78	High functioning State	0,85	0,70	0,78
42	Bhutan	0,77	Moderate functioning State	0,69	0,86	0,77
43	Botswana	0,77	Moderate functioning State	0,84	0,90	0,60
44	Montenegro	0,77	High functioning State	0,73	0,89	0,70
45	Bulgaria	0,76	Moderate functioning State	0,74	0,93	0,64
46	Trinidad and Tobago	0,75	High functioning State	0,70	0,80	0,76
47	Israel	0,75	Moderate functioning State	0,83	0,66	0,78
48	Hungary	0,75	Moderate functioning State	0,77	0,81	0,67
49	Qatar	0,75	Moderate functioning State	0,76	0,84	0,66
50	Maldives	0,75	Moderate functioning State	0,78	0,86	0,62
51	Tanzania	0,74	Moderate functioning State	0,73	0,87	0,64
52	Oman	0,74	Moderate functioning State	0,89	0,68	0,67
53	Croatia	0,74	Moderate functioning State	0,70	0,89	0,64
54	Argentina	0,74	Moderate functioning State	0,74	0,84	0,64
55	Kuwait	0,73	Moderate functioning State	0,88	0,71	0,64
56	Romania	0,73	Moderate functioning State	0,75	0,85	0,61
57	China	0,71	Moderate functioning State	0,83	0,77	0,56
58	Brazil	0,71	Moderate functioning State	0,74	0,72	0,66
59	Saudi Arabia	0,70	Moderate functioning State	0,81	0,82	0,51
60	Serbia	0,69	Moderate functioning State	0,70	0,74	0,63
61	Panama	0,68	Moderate functioning State	0,78	0,65	0,63
62	Benin	0,68	Moderate functioning State	0,75	0,69	0,61
63	Mauritius	0,68	Moderate functioning State	0,75	0,58	0,73
64	Vanuatu	0,68	Defective State	0,77	0,85	0,48
65	The Gambia	0,68	Defective State	0,79	0,83	0,47
66	Kazakhstan	0,67	Moderate functioning State	0,66	0,76	0,61
67	Albania	0,67	Moderate functioning State	0,64	0,83	0,57
68	Jordan	0,66	Moderate functioning State	0,70	0,81	0,51
69	Namibia	0,66	Defective State	0,81	0,77	0,46
70	Malaysia	0,66	Moderate functioning State	0,56	0,79	0,64
71	North Korea	0,66	Defective State	0,79	0,80	0,45
72	Vietnam	0,65	Defective State	0,73	0,80	0,48
73	Cuba	0,65	Defective State	0,81	0,75	0,46
74	Indonesia	0,65	Moderate functioning State	0,60	0,74	0,62
75	Ghana	0,64	Defective State	0,80	0,78	0,42
76	Mongolia	0,64	Defective State	0,63	0,88	0,47
77	Kyrgyzstan	0,63	Moderate functioning State	0,59	0,84	0,51
78	Zambia	0,63	Defective State	0,85	0,85	0,35
79	Russia	0,63	Defective State	0,75	0,70	0,48
80	Georgia	0,63	Moderate functioning State	0,66	0,53	0,71
81	Cape Verde	0,63	Defective State	0,76	0,92	0,35
82	Fiji	0,63	Defective State	0,77	0,83	0,39
83	Thailand	0,63	Moderate functioning State	0,69	0,64	0,55
84	Sri Lanka	0,62	Defective State	0,63	0,86	0,45
85	Tunisia	0,62	Defective State	0,69	0,81	0,43
86	Moldova	0,62	Moderate functioning State	0,75	0,52	0,61
87	North Macedonia	0,62	Moderate functioning State	0,55	0,78	0,55
88	Guyana	0,61	Defective State	0,58	0,82	0,48
89	Algeria	0,61	Defective State	0,59	0,79	0,49
90	Mexico	0,60	Defective State	0,77	0,70	0,40
91	Uzbekistan	0,60	Defective State	0,64	0,83	0,40
92	Nepal	0,60	Defective State	0,76	0,83	0,34
93	South Africa	0,59	Defective State	0,75	0,84	0,33
94	Kosovo	0,59	Moderate functioning State	0,53	0,62	0,62
95	Turkey	0,58	Defective State	0,71	0,59	0,47
96	Sao Tome and Principe	0,58	Defective State	0,82	0,78	0,30
97	India	0,58	Defective State	0,65	0,78	0,38
98	Eswatini	0,58	Defective State	0,60	0,72	0,44
99	Cyprus	0,56	Defective State	0,66	0,37	0,73
100	Uganda	0,56	Defective State	0,65	0,66	0,42
101	Kenya	0,56	Defective State	0,82	0,52	0,42
102	Dominican Republic	0,56	Defective State	0,74	0,76	0,31
103	Philippines	0,55	Defective State	0,63	0,79	0,35
104	Bolivia	0,55	Defective State	0,69	0,55	0,45
105	Senegal	0,55	Defective State	0,69	0,57	0,44
106	Azerbaijan	0,55	Defective State	0,58	0,72	0,40
107	Peru	0,55	Defective State	0,75	0,56	0,40
108	Colombia	0,55	Defective State	0,76	0,55	0,39
109	Burkina Faso	0,55	Defective State	0,76	0,36	0,60
110	Angola	0,55	Defective State	0,73	0,74	0,30
111	Timor-Leste	0,55	Defective State	0,81	0,64	0,32
112	Laos	0,55	Defective State	0,58	0,69	0,40
113	Morocco	0,54	Defective State	0,56	0,69	0,42
114	Lesotho	0,54	Defective State	0,66	0,61	0,39
115	Armenia	0,54	Defective State	0,55	0,64	0,45
116	Turkmenistan	0,53	Defective State	0,67	0,70	0,32
117	Ecuador	0,53	Defective State	0,68	0,54	0,41
118	El Salvador	0,53	Defective State	0,67	0,72	0,30
119	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0,53	Defective State	0,44	0,62	0,53
120	Egypt	0,52	Profound defective State	0,72	0,70	0,28
121	Suriname	0,52	Defective State	0,66	0,46	0,47
122	Zimbabwe	0,52	Profound defective State	0,70	0,72	0,27
123	Iran	0,51	Defective State	0,62	0,53	0,41
124	Ivory Coast	0,51	Defective State	0,69	0,64	0,30
125	Rwanda	0,51	Profound defective State	0,66	0,72	0,28
126	Belarus	0,50	Profound defective State	0,27	0,75	0,61
127	Malawi	0,50	Profound defective State	0,64	0,86	0,23
128	Sierra Leone	0,50	Profound defective State	0,75	0,67	0,25
129	Nigeria	0,49	Defective State	0,71	0,55	0,30
130	Togo	0,48	Defective State	0,53	0,56	0,37
131	Ukraine	0,48	Defective State	0,57	0,37	0,52
132	Bangladesh	0,46	Profound defective State	0,55	0,81	0,22
133	Cambodia	0,46	Defective State	0,53	0,58	0,32
134	Mauritania	0,46	Profound defective State	0,72	0,61	0,22
135	Nicaragua	0,46	Profound defective State	0,62	0,55	0,28
136	Djibouti	0,45	Defective State	0,55	0,49	0,34
137	Solomon Islands	0,45	Profound defective State	0,72	0,61	0,21
138	Honduras	0,45	Defective State	0,54	0,48	0,34
139	Paraguay	0,44	Profound defective State	0,60	0,49	0,29
140	Guinea	0,44	Profound defective State	0,75	0,44	0,25
141	Mali	0,44	Profound defective State	0,68	0,48	0,25
142	Cameroon	0,43	Profound defective State	0,59	0,51	0,27
143	Mozambique	0,43	Profound defective State	0,60	0,61	0,22
144	Guatemala	0,42	Profound defective State	0,48	0,59	0,27
145	Pakistan	0,42	Profound defective State	0,49	0,58	0,26
146	Gabon	0,42	Defective State	0,41	0,45	0,39
147	Tajikistan	0,40	Profound defective State	0,54	0,60	0,20
148	Burundi	0,38	Profound defective State	0,60	0,72	0,13
149	Equatorial Guinea	0,37	Profound defective State	0,59	0,65	0,14
150	Liberia	0,37	Profound defective State	0,64	0,65	0,13
151	Bahrain	0,37	Profound defective State	0,15	0,61	0,55
152	Guinea-Bissau	0,36	Profound defective State	0,49	0,40	0,25
153	Comoros	0,35	Profound defective State	0,39	0,41	0,28
154	Eritrea	0,35	Profound defective State	0,61	0,43	0,17
155	Syria	0,35	Defective State	0,40	0,36	0,30
156	Iraq	0,35	Profound defective State	0,35	0,44	0,27
157	Madagascar	0,34	Profound defective State	0,60	0,45	0,14
158	Burma/Myanmar	0,34	Profound defective State	0,72	0,21	0,26
159	Niger	0,34	Profound defective State	0,48	0,42	0,19
160	Lebanon	0,33	Defective State	0,30	0,33	0,37
161	Ethiopia	0,33	Profound defective State	0,63	0,26	0,22
162	Sudan	0,33	Profound defective State	0,46	0,21	0,37
163	Republic of the Congo	0,32	Profound defective State	0,51	0,42	0,16
164	Democratic Republic of the Congo	0,32	Profound defective State	0,47	0,33	0,21
165	Afghanistan	0,31	Profound defective State	0,34	0,37	0,24
166	Papua New Guinea	0,28	Collapsed State	0,65	0,57	0,06
167	Venezuela	0,27	Profound defective State	0,36	0,38	0,15
168	Chad	0,25	Collapsed State	0,41	0,39	0,09
169	Somalia	0,24	Collapsed State	0,57	0,29	0,08
170	Central African Republic	0,22	Profound defective State	0,29	0,30	0,12
171	South Sudan	0,18	Collapsed State	0,42	0,17	0,09
172	Haiti	0,17	Profound defective State	0,27	0,20	0,10
173	Yemen	0,12	Collapsed State	0,17	0,16	0,06
174	Libya	0,03	Collapsed State	0,00	0,09	0,31

Stateness 2023 - Context Measurement

Report 2023

Concept and Components

Informal Institutions and the State

Publication