Almost a quarter of a century ago, it looked as though totalitarianism had been defeated and democracy had won the great ideological battle of our times. But today, the world’s democracies are in crisis. The values democracy embodies — free and fair elections, freedom of the press, and rule of law — are under assault and in retreat globally. In many countries, a growing number of people are losing faith in democracy’s ability to deliver good lives and a brighter future.
This is no mere hysteria over the “populist right” or the rise of dictatorships in the West. It is a profoundly disturbing time for the democratic project, with state and society-led efforts to reverse this trend now urgently needed.
Despite the overall negative trends, there are also signs of positive democratic renewal. Some states are responding to the crises by taking steps that will bolster democracy’s long-term resiliency. For example, the heightened engagement of the West with the Western Balkans has helped Macedonia tackle corruption and other structural problems that fed into years-long political conflict. Other states, like Russia and China, are recognizing that they cannot maintain their grip on power by squelching open debate and pursuing dissidents abroad. Instead, they must strengthen their domestic rule of law and pursue a more balanced relationship with international institutions. These overlapping shifts are not only reshaping the global balance between democracy and autocracy, but they are giving rise to a new qualitative dynamic that could alter democratic politics in profound ways.