

Proponents of this idea include official Chinese and Russian commentators seeking to strengthen their international influence while escaping accountability for abuses, as well as antidemocratic actors within democratic states who see an opportunity to consolidate power. The ongoing decline has given rise to claims of democracy’s inherent inferiority. Nearly 75 percent of the world’s population lived in a country that faced deterioration last year. The impact of the long-term democratic decline has become increasingly global in nature, broad enough to be felt by those living under the cruelest dictatorships, as well as by citizens of long-standing democracies. The long democratic recession is deepening. The countries experiencing deterioration outnumbered those with improvements by the largest margin recorded since the negative trend began in 2006.

These withering blows marked the 15th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. Incumbent leaders increasingly used force to crush opponents and settle scores, sometimes in the name of public health, while beleaguered activists-lacking effective international support-faced heavy jail sentences, torture, or murder in many settings. Emergency Assistance and Thematic ProgramsĪs a lethal pandemic, economic and physical insecurity, and violent conflict ravaged the world in 2020, democracy’s defenders sustained heavy new losses in their struggle against authoritarian foes, shifting the international balance in favor of tyranny.Afghanistan Human Rights Coordination Mechanism.Government Accountability & Transparency.
