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Release Date 27.02.2026

 INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES

 

 

 

Nisnevich Yuliy A.

Doctor of Political Sciences, professor of Department Policy and Management

National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow)

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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9911-9623

 

THE WORLD OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY

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This article is devoted to the study of the world of democratic governance in the institutional paradigm. It presents a structuring of the world of democratic governance based on religion.  It is determined that Christianity is the dominant religion, with the majority of citizens in more than 85% of the world's countries belonging to various Christian denominations. At the same time, in the world of democratic governance, approximately 90% of countries are secular in accordance with their constitutions. In eight countries, Christian denominations are established as state religions. It is shown that the countries of the world with democratic governance are unevenly distributed across geographical regions. More than three-quarters of all countries with democratic governance are concentrated in America, Europe, and Oceania, while less than a quarter of such countries are located in Asia and Africa. The results of the analysis show that in ~70% of the world's democratic states, parliamentary forms of government are in place, and in ~30% of such states, forms of government such as presidential, presidential-parliamentary, and parliamentary-presidential republics are established. A typology of democratic states is presented. It is shown that the world of democratic rule includes ~ 80% free states and ~ 20% partially free states. In twenty-eight free states, all political and state orders of polyarchic democracy are implemented at a high level. In seven partially free states, a regime of feckless pluralism is in place, in which there is real changeability of ruling political actors, but key problems of the state are not resolved. In six states of the world of democratic rule, there is a tendency toward the formation of a regime of dominant power, which can lead to an authoritarian rollback and the transformation of these states into undemocratic ones.

 

Keywords: democratic rule, world religions, geographical regions, regime of feckless pluralism, regime of dominant power

 

JEL: F02, F50, F54

UDC: 332, 327

DOI: 10.52342/2587-7666VTE_2026_1_164_188

 

©  Yu. Nisnevich, 2026

© Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences «Issues of Theoretical Economics», 2026

 

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Manuscript submission date: 01.12.2025

Manuscript acceptance date: 09.12.2025

 

For citation:

Nisnevich Yu. The world of democratic governance at the beginning of the XXI century // Voprosy teoreticheskoy ekonomiki. 2026. No. 1. Pp. 164–188. DOI: 10.52342/2587-7666VTE_2026_1_164_188