Atlas / Organisations / Cape Verdean Democracy
Cape Verdean Democracy
1991– · Cape Verde · Competitive Blocs · Electoral party · coding confidence medium
Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →
Core principles
A one-party state that legalised opposition, lost the first free election and has alternated peacefully ever since.
Economic model
Tourism, remittances and fisheries; near-universal schooling; among the highest human development scores in Africa.
Organisation of powers
Repeated transfers of power, a free press and an independent judiciary, on ten small islands with no natural resources.
Reading note
Ranks at or near the top of African democracy indices and is essentially never mentioned in general discussion of the continent.
Check a claim about Cape Verdean Democracy. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.
Open in the atlasThe evidence for every score
All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.
EC · Economic organisation · scored +03
Coded +3: tourism and remittances with near-universal schooling.
- Comparative datasetHuman development indicators rank among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored +02
Coded +2: socially moderate with early decriminalisation.
- Documented act or statuteSame-sex relations were decriminalised in 2004, ahead of most of the continent.
AU · Organisation of power · scored −05
Coded −5: a single-party state that legalised opposition and lost the first free election.
- Documented act or statuteThe governing party legalised opposition in 1990 and lost the 1991 election, then conceded.
- Documented act or statutePower has alternated repeatedly since with no interruption of constitutional government.
SC · Scale of decision · scored +02
Coded +2: a small unitary state across ten islands with municipal government.
- Documented act or statuteMunicipalities administer local services with elected councils.
ID · Rule of membership · scored +01
Coded +1: a creole national identity with a diaspora larger than the resident population.
- Documented act or statuteMore Cape Verdeans live abroad than at home, and the diaspora holds parliamentary representation.
CH · Method and tempo · scored −08
Coded −8: transition by negotiated legalisation rather than by rupture.
- Documented act or statuteThe 1990 constitutional amendment introducing multi-party politics was passed by the ruling party itself.
Nearest organisations by measured distance
Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.
- Mauritian Democracy1.0
- Postwar Christian Democracy2.4
- Fianna Fáil2.6
- CDU/CSU3.2
- Mongolian Democracy3.6
- Botswana Democratic Party3.7
Countries
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Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.
Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.