DEMOCRACYS.ORG / COUNTRY BRIEF
Gabon
Institutions and political conditions · 2025
#104of 179 places
−6.3points since 2015
43.8–57.9source-bound score area*
What the score says
Gabon scores 50.4 on the Democracys Standard. Its score was 56.7 in 2015, a fall of 6.3 points. The lowest-scoring dimension in 2025 is free and fair elections (30.2).
What drove the change?
The score for Gabon fell 6.3 points, from 56.7 to 50.4 between 2015 and 2025. 1 of the five areas improved while 4 worsened, so the headline combines competing movements. Public reasoning contributed the largest downward push in the score calculation. The latest year moved in the opposite direction (+2.2), 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
Elections resumed after the coup, with limited political balance
Presidential, legislative, and local elections marked a return to electoral activity after the 2023 coup. Freedom House notes that almost all elected legislators supported the president. Resuming elections is a meaningful procedural change, but it is different from establishing a strongly competitive system with effective opposition oversight.
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 | 30.2 | −7.3 |
| Rights and checks on power | 42.6 | −4.9 |
| Public participation | 62.0 | +2.9 |
| Public reasoning | 57.8 | −19.2 |
| Political equality | 63.9 | −3.1 |
Dimension movements are not additive contributions to the overall score. The method also accounts for weak areas.
Three questions worth investigating
- Can people choose their leaders through broad voting rights, honest elections, free political groups, and open public debate?
- 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.