FableBits/Electoral-Democracy-in-Africa

This repository explores the state of democracy and its relationship with human development across the African continent during the period 2011–2025. Using static and interctive maps and graphs. # African Democracy Visualization Project This repository explores the state of democracy and its relationship with human development across the African continent during the period **2011–2025**. Using data-driven visualizations, it analyzes how democratic institutions correlate with inequality-adjusted development outcomes. ## 📊 Visualizations ### 1. Interactive Map of Electoral Democracy **File:** african_democracy_interative_map.py * **Description:** An interactive choropleth map that allows users to explore democracy index scores across Africa from 2011 to 2025. * **Features:** * Dynamic year slider to track changes over time. * Specialized handling for sub-national regions (e.g., Zanzibar and Tanzania Mainland). * Interactive hover and click features for detailed data exploration. ### 2. IHDI vs. Democracy Quality Scatterplot **File:** ihdi_democracy_interactive_scatterplot.py * **Description:** An interactive scatterplot that examines the correlation between the **Electoral Democracy Index** and the **Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI)**. * **Insight:** Helps determine how much political freedom influences developmental equality during the examined period. ## 🗂️ Data Sources * **Democracy Data:** Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), providing multidimensional data on the quality of democracy. * **IHDI Data:** United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), measuring national achievements while accounting for inequality. * **Geospatial Data:** Natural Earth for country and province-level boundaries. ## 🛠️ Technical Stack * **Languages:** Python (Pandas, GeoPandas, NumPy). * **Visualizations:** Plotly (Interactive maps and charts), Matplotlib/Seaborn. * **Database:** MySQL (SQLAlchemy) for storing and querying historical datasets. * **Geometry:** Shapely for handling complex spatial merges. ## 🚀 How to Run 1. **Configure Database:** Ensure your MySQL instance contains the `africa_dem` and `africa_ihdi_2023` tables. …