The Economist Intelligence Unit have released their Democracy Index 2008 for free. The index examined the state of democracy in 167 countries around the world. The Index of Democracy focused on five general categories; electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation and political culture.
According to Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index 2008 Sweden scored a total of 9.88 on a scale from zero to ten, which was the highest result, while North Korea scored the lowest with 0.86. Closer to home, South Africa scored a total of 7.91, the second highest score for an African country, only Mauritius scored higher with 8.04, while Zimbabwe scored 2.53. The countries are categorized into "Full Democracies" (8-10), "Flawed Democracies" (6-7.9), "Hybrid Regimes" (4 - 5.9), and "Authoritarian Regimes" (below 4).
The complete index is available to download for free as a PDF [533KB] from the EIU's website.