The 2026 Berggruen Governance Index: The Four Worlds of Governance

The Berggruen Governance Index (BGI) analyzes the relationship between democratic accountability, state capacity, and the provision of public goods. It builds upon prior work that examined the impact of governance and democracy on the quality of life. It is a collaborative project between the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, the Hertie School, and the Berggruen Institute.

Abstract

The Berggruen Governance Index (BGI) measures the quality of democracy, government, and life across 145 countries, drawing on data covering democratic accountability, state capacity, and public goods delivery. The 2026 BGI finds that while the world has not become more democratic since 2000 and the quality of government has shown no consistent improvement, the quality of life has generally risen. The unbalanced nature of these gains raises questions about their sustainability. The BGI analysis reveals that the 145 countries fall into one of four “governance worlds.” We call these the Consolidated Democratic States, Capacity-Constrained States, Authoritarian and Hybrid States, and Low-Capacity Developing States. Countries rarely cross between worlds, but substantial movement occurs within them. Despite such overall inertia, we do find that three pathways to improvement emerge: steady, broad-based gains that cumulate to cross a cluster threshold; balanced progress across all three dimensions following a political opening; and asymmetric gains driven almost entirely by public goods delivery in Authoritarian and Hybrid States. Looking ahead, the defining governance challenge is the inverse relationship between exposure to future shocks and the capacity to respond—a mismatch most acute in the Low-Capacity Developing States. But challenges exist in every cluster, and solutions must factor in both global trends and local specificities to achieve a “new possibilism.”