Turkey declines in global rule of law rankings

According to the Global Democracy Report 2026 published by International IDEA, Turkey has experienced a decline in its rule of law ranking. The country fell to 149th place out of 173 nations, down from 143rd the previous year. Its rule of law score decreased from 0.264 to 0.229.

Turkey was categorized in the ‘low performance’ group across all four key indicators used by the report: absence of corruption, judicial independence, personal integrity and security, and predictable application of laws. In the European assessment, Turkey was grouped with Russia and Azerbaijan as having low performance in these areas.

In other democratic metrics, Turkey ranked 135th in rights with a score of 0.317 and 137th in participation with a score of 0.398. The report noted that Turkey’s ranking placed it behind countries such as Eswatini, Somalia, and Azerbaijan.