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Checking the health of global democracy
Polling and data analysis
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Public relations
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Research & insights
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Campaign strategy
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User experience (UX) research, audits and design
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PR for good causes
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The client
Open Society Foundations: The Open Society Foundations (OSF) work to build inclusive democracies whose governments are accountable to their people. They wanted to create a barometer to understand the state of democracy around the world.
Key stats
30+
Countries polled
175m
Polling data points
The challenge
In the run up to a truly consequential year for democracy - in 2024, more people taking part in elections than in any other year in human history - OSF was keen to understand how healthy democratic societies are.
OSF approached 89up to produce a long-term framework for global attitudinal surveys that will help to develop a model for understanding and predicting the factors that cause societies to become less open and less supportive of common global aspirations.
The solution
89up undertook the largest polling of its kind to understand the current state of democracy around the world.
We commissioned polling in over thirty countries, representing 5.5 billion people, producing approximately 175 million data points.
Using this data, we supported OSF in the creation of the Open Society Barometer: Can Democracy Deliver? report.
The impact
The findings challenged the idea that democracy is under threat: in fact, it has a strong pulse.
We found that people want to believe in open societies where checks on power, institutions, minority protections, and individual rights enable us all to participate - but we saw evidence that actual improvements to people’s lives are patchy and inconsistent.
The report suggests that the gravest threat it faces is not the rival appeal of authoritarianism, but whether democratic leaders can deliver for their populations.
