DEMOCRACYS.ORG / COUNTRY BRIEF
Fiji
Institutions and political conditions · 2025
#71of 179 places
+10.4points since 2015
55.4–69.6source-bound score area*
What the score says
Fiji scores 62.0 on the Democracys Standard. Its score was 51.6 in 2015, a rise of 10.4 points. The lowest-scoring dimension in 2025 is public participation (43.4).
What drove the change?
The score for Fiji rose 10.4 points, from 51.6 to 62.0 between 2015 and 2025. All five areas improved. Public reasoning contributed the largest upward push in the score calculation. The latest year moved in the opposite direction (−1.1), so the longer trend is not the whole story.
This explains movement within the formula, not the causal effect of political events.
2025 context · Freedom House assessment
Courts and civilian law enforcement strengthened constraints on power
Freedom House cites Supreme Court decisions demonstrating independence and the replacement of military officers in law-enforcement roles with civilians. These developments concern who can check the government and how coercive authority is controlled. They follow the end of a long-dominant party’s rule, but should be assessed as institutional changes in their own right.
Read the country report · Freedom in the World 2026AI-assisted source summary · not independently expert-reviewed
What this context does—and does not—explain
This is a selected development, not a complete political history. Its date may differ from the selected comparison period. It is not evidence that one event caused a particular number of points, and it may describe progress even when this index declines.
The scores use V-Dem. The narrative summarizes a separate assessment by Freedom House, whose definitions and coverage differ. Neither organization endorses this website. The summary is AI-assisted, source-linked, and has not received independent country-expert review. Source checked October 5, 2026.
Why democracy measures can disagree →Look beneath the headline
| Democracy test | 2025 | Since 2015 |
|---|---|---|
| Free and fair elections | 50.7 | +12.2 |
| Rights and checks on power | 74.9 | +15.2 |
| Public participation | 43.4 | +6.0 |
| Public reasoning | 76.7 | +15.6 |
| Political equality | 68.0 | +3.3 |
Dimension movements are not additive contributions to the overall score. The method also accounts for weak areas.
Three questions worth investigating
- Can people shape public life through civic groups, direct voting, and meaningful local and regional government?
- Which documented changes in laws, institutions, or their implementation occurred during the period?
- What evidence challenges your explanation, and whose experience is missing?
Use primary records and country expertise. A change in an estimate alone does not identify its cause.
Read with care
This is an independent educational beta, not a V-Dem endorsement. Scores are not percentages of democracy or judgments about a people. Small differences may be within uncertainty. *The score area is obtained from source bounds; it is not a formal confidence interval for this composite or its change.