State of the world 2018: democracy facing global challenges

Democratization, 2020

This article analyses the state of democracy in the world in 2019. We demonstrate that the "third wave of autocratization" is accelerating and deepening. The dramatic loss of eight democracies in the last year sets a new record in the rate of breakdowns. Exemplifying this crisis is Hungary, now the EU's first ever authoritarian member state. Governmental assaults on civil society, freedom of expression, and the media are proliferating and becoming more severe. A new and disturbing trend is that the quality of elections is now also deteriorating in many countries. Nevertheless, there are also positive signs: pro-democracy protests reached an all-time high in 2019. People are taking to the streets to protest the erosion of democracies and challenge dictators. Popular protests have contributed to substantial democratization in 22 countries over the last ten yearsincluding Armenia, Tunisia, and Ecuador. This was before the Covid-19 pandemic. Responses to the crisis, including many states of emergencies, risk further accelerating autocratization.

2019

We are very grateful for our funders' support over the years, which has made this venture possible. To learn more about our funders, please visit: https://www.v-dem.net/en/v-dem-institute/funders The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect an official position of the V-Dem Project or the V-Dem Steering Committee. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) produces the largest global dataset on democracy with some 27 million data points for 202 countries from 1789 to 2018. Involving over 3,000 scholars and other country experts, V-Dem measures hundreds of different attributes of democracy. V-Dem enables new ways to study the nature, causes, and consequences of democracy embracing its multiple meanings.

DEMOCRACIES UNDER PRESSURE A GLOBAL SURVEY (VOLUME I), 2019

The idea of democracy has revolutionized the world. It is based on a political order whose main feature is makingtheexercise ofpower subjectto theconsent ofthe governed. SinceitsancientandgloriousAthenian roots, the idea has spread across land and sea. The EnglishBill of Rights in 1689, the United States Constitution in 1787, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789 marked the arrival of political freedom in the world with distinction. It spread across Europe in the 19th century, powering nations with the emancipating force of the peoples’ right to self-determination. During the 20th century it triumphed over modern tyrannies, repelling fascist regimes, the Nazis and their allies, then defeating communism after a Cold War that ended with the collapse of the USSR, defeated economically, technologically, politically and morally. During this same period, the world also embarked on a new phase of democratization. In 1970s Europe, the Greeks, Portuguese and Spaniards overthrew their military dictatorships. In Latin America in the 1980s, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil went through the same experience. Then, on the Old Continent during the 1990s, it was Central and Eastern Europe’s turn. In 1992, a symbolic milestone was reached: more than half of the world’s States were democracies. The world was becoming democratic. The wave lasted until the beginning of the 21st century, with the number of democratic states doubling between the late 1970s and the early 2000s. However, as we enter the 21st century, the horizon looks darker. In the 2019 edition of its annual report Freedom in the World, the NGO Freedom House expressed concern over “global declines in political rights and civil liberties for an alarming 13 consecutive years, from 2005 to 2018. The global average score has declined each year, and countries with net score declines have consistently outnumbered those with net improvements”. Today it is no longer simply a question of strengthening the democratic process where it is still fragile, in Liberia, Uganda or Tunisia, but also of helping regain democratic momentum where countries have slid back, in South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia and encouraging progress where it can be seen, in Ethiopia, Angola, Armenia, Malaysia or Ecuador. It is now a question of protecting, or even defending, established democracies. This is the case for the countries that emerged from the post-Soviet democratic transition that seem to be tempted down a backwards path, an authoritarian transition feared throughout Europe, advocating for a paradoxical model at once democratic and “illiberal”. The wave of populist elections is weakening the European Union. Here we do not see the traditional political, economic and social factors that have always threatened the solidity of the democratic world, such as growth, employment and the educational system. These are challenges that must be faced time and time again. Rather, under the emerging concerns, the media has been disrupted by social media, where the best and the worst of humanity exist side by side. How can we keep the democratic discussion alive if the truth is to lose its mediating power, if opinions and debates are constantly oversimplified and radicalized, if the legitimacy of journalism is no longer recognized? From now on, not just election campaigns but also electoral processes themselves are likely to be seriously disrupted by new forms of public debate. The heart of democracy is under threat. This moment of doubt is also the product of the forces unleashed by globalization. A paradoxical triumph of the West, globalization destabilizes democracies while offering unprecedented opportunities for development and expansion to new powers. Among these is China, which is no longer hiding its ambition to dominate the 21st century. It is increasingly powerful both economically and technologically. In the strategic field of artificial intelligence and biotechnology, it is fighting for the leading position. But China achieves these stunning successes without renouncing its authoritarian system, or even the hegemony of the Chinese Communist Party, by building a state model that could be described as “high-tech totalitarianism,” ready to export its concepts, methods, and tools. For the first time since its creation, democracy is no longer certain of inspiring the world. It is in this new and troubled context that we wanted to bring together our two institutions: on the one hand, the Fondation pour l’innovation politique, a French think tank committed to defending the values of freedom and progress and the ideals of the European Union; on the other, the International Republican Institute, an American organization that promotes democracy worldwide. Our two organizations were pleased to welcome the Brazilian think tank República do Amanhã into this partnership in order to carry out this international study, conducted in forty-two democracies, presented here under the title Democracies Under Pressure. The document is comprised of two volumes: the first is devoted to themes and issues, such as trust in institutions, support for the model of representative democracy, support for abortion or the death penalty, the decline of democratic values among younger generations, etc.; the second volume is dedicated to the forty-two countries of the survey, offering a fact sheet for each that summarizes the state of national public opinion. We also present the reader with an “Index of Democratic Culture”.

DEMOCRACY ENDS ON ELECTION DAY: HOW MODERN GOVERNANCE IS RULED BY AUTOCRACY, 2024

I am not a politician. I am a geological engineer by profession, with a deep interest in global affairs. Over time, I have become increasingly concerned about the monopolistic use of the beautiful word democracy by certain self-acclaimed democratic countries-nations that, through their actions, often contradict even the most basic principles of democracy.

Democratization

This article presents evidence of a global trend of autocratization. The most visible feature of democracyelectionsremains strong and is even improving in some places. Autocratization mainly affects non-electoral aspects of democracy such as media freedom, freedom of expression, and the rule of law, yet these in turn threaten to undermine the meaningfulness of elections. While the majority of the world's population lives under democratic rule, 2.5 billion people were subjected to autocratization in 2017. Last year, democratic qualities were in decline in 24 countries across the world, many of which are populous such as India and the United States. This article also presents evidence testifying that men and wealthy groups tend to have a strong hold on political power in countries where 86% of the world population reside. Further, we show that political exclusion based on socioeconomic status in particular is becoming increasingly severe. For instance, the wealthy have gained significantly more power in countries home to 1.9 billion of the world's population over the past decade.

Sociologia & Antropologia, 2019

Journal of science, humanities and arts, 2022

There is currently a great deal of relative inequality and a lack of liberties for individuals residing in troubled democracies and authoritarian regimes. The entire democratic governance ecosystem is under pressure, including crucial components like civil society, independent media, and the rule of law. Given this dire situation, people in these countries often face oppressive and sometimes life-threatening circumstances. The deliberate use of antidemocratic tactics by a wide range of internal and external contexts and actors tends to be eroding democratic institutions in many countries and thereby enhancing the triumphalism of authoritarian regimes. However, there appears to be a correlative relationship between the increase in troubled democracies or authoritarian regimes across the globe and the growing number of determined freedom fighters, who strive to protect democracy and ensure that citizens' right to freedom is respected. The article reviews this global trend within the context of the 2023 Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) which offers varied thematic panel discussions, action-oriented workshops, art exhibitions, and theatre lectures around issues of freedom, human rights, and democracy for its participants worldwide. josha.org

the second edition covered the situation towards the end of 2008; the third as of November 2010 and the fourth at the end of 2011.

2004

Autocratic regimes that fall from power may be replaced by either new autocratic regimes or democratic regimes. Previous research on transitions has only looked at changes between democratic and non-democratic regimes. Non-democracy, however, is a residual category that lumps together both stable autocratic regimes and transitions between autocratic regimes. We develop a series of hypotheses on conditions affecting the likelihood of autocratic breakdown and transitions to either new autocratic or democratic regimes, and devise a new approach to identifying changes between non-democratic regimes. We find that although some factors make autocratic regimes more likely to break down and make both transitions to autocracy and democracy more likely, some types of regime transitions are relatively more likely under different circumstances. Whereas domestic economic factors have a strong influence on the stability of autocratic regimes, international factors and prior experiences with democracy are strongly associated with the likelihood of transitions to democracy in the wake of a dictatorship. 1 Collier and Collier (1991) provide one of the few explicit definitions of regime that we are aware of. Munck (2001), for example, reviews recent contributions on what he describes as "the regime question" without defining or discussing the concept. Most of the literature uses the term in ways resembling the Collier and Collier definition, since it is recognized that non-democratic regimes at least in principle may alternate. One prominent exception is Przeworski et al. (2000:18-9), who explicitly distinguish only between democratic and non-democratic leader selection. We suspect that this restriction is in part tailored to fit their data and empirical analysis.

The Friday Times, 2025

Autocratisation, the erosion of democracy through centralisation and suppression, threatens global political integrity. It curtails freedoms, fosters polarisation, and undermines rights, yet democratic movements endure...Democratic advocates and movements continue to challenge the power shift. Social media, in particular, is an integral avenue upon which people express their opinions despite censorship. The vast dispersion of media means controlling online discourses requires advanced resources and technological prowess.