Global risk to democracy

The number of countries that are advancing towards authoritarian regimes is more than double that of those that are advancing towards democratic systems in the last five years, according to the study carried out by the International Institute for Democracy (IDEA) on the global state of democracy.

IDEA is headquartered in Stockholm and is represented on all continents.

Yesterday, the Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia published relevant figures on the study that classifies countries into three types of political regimes: democratic (104 nations present this type of system), authoritarian (49) and hybrid (20).

The invasion of Ukraine has moved Russia from a hybrid regime to an authoritarian one.

Brazil, El Salvador, Hungary and Poland are falling sharply, while India, Mauritius and the United States are doing so more moderately.

Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Belarus, Cambodia and the Comoros suffered a “general decline” in their political model.

The study indicates that there is concern for the United States, a country that “is on the brink of democratic bankruptcy: Republicans are working to discredit the electoral results using violence. We see a decline in sexual and reproductive rights, and the levels of polarization are worse than ever,” says Kevin Casas-Zamora, the Costa Rican, IDEA’s general secretary.

President Joe Biden convened the first Democracy Summit in January of this year. He invited 110 countries at his discretion and China and Russia stood out because they were not invited. Last week the American announced the second summit for next year.

The attempt to return to the White House of Donald Trump will be a test for American democracy.

The IDEA study points out that authoritarianism has progressed in Asia, where only 54% of the population lives in democracies and almost 85% lives in a weak or receding democracy, while countries in Africa are “solid” in the face of the risk of instability.

The Middle East remains “the most authoritarian region in the world”, 10 years after the Arab Springs.

Iraq, Israel and Lebanon are the only “democracies” in this part of the world.

Almost half of the European democracies suffered a deterioration of their system during the last five years.

Casas-Zamora “sees some lights of hope”, such as the social movements in recent years to demand more rights for women in Latin America or greater ambition in the fight against climate change.

The study concludes that the number of protests around the world has more than doubled between 2017 and 2022.