Elite Quality Report 2026

The Elite Quality Index 2026 (EQx2026), the seventh edition of the world's leading comparative political economy index, ranks 151 countries by the quality of their elite business models. Elite quality is defined as the capacity of elites to create sustainable value for society rather than extract it through rent-seeking and other value-transfer activities. Drawing on 148 indicators, the EQx operationalises elite quality on a global scale, offering a comparative lens on long-term economic growth and human development. \The EQx2026 supplies aggregate measurements like its 4 Index Areas and 12 Pillars, which include Political Value, Creative Destruction, or Unearned Income and serve to diagnose the specific strengths and weaknesses of a specific country’s elite system. A foundational innovation of the EQx is its inclusion of ‘Power’ as one of its two Sub-Indices (the other one is ‘Value’). Power is seen as being a key predictor and enabling mechanism for future extractive value transfers. At the most granular level, the EQx’s 148 Indicators provide a stand-alone analytical lens that seek to describe and explain specific value creation or value extraction phenomena in the political economy and their links to elite agency.