Subnational Democracy Index: Methodology and Technical Documentation

This document provides the complete methodological framework for the construction and application of the 'Subnational Democracy Index'. The Index offers a structured, interval-based technique for assessing the institutional characteristics of subnational political regimes in Ukraine at the level of oblast-status cities. Drawing on official and verifiable sources, the methodic operationalises key aspects of electoral and post-electoral processes through a set of seven component indices. These indices capture various institutional dimensions such as electoral competitiveness, voter turnout, succession control, term limitation, party system structure, ideological diversity, and inter-party confrontation. The document outlines the logic of indicator aggregation, the coding procedures, the formalised conditions for assessment, and the interpretative model used to classify regime types along an autocracy–democracy spectrum. It also includes formulae for additive scoring, regime typologisation, and guidance on interpreting results in comparative temporal and territorial contexts. This technique serves as the analytical foundation for generating the data presented in the accompanying dataset.