US joins annual list of ‘backsliding’ democracies, with turning points linked to Trump, George Floyd incident
- Globally, more than 1 in 4 people live in a backsliding democracy, according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
- While the US has appeared in its annual list for the first time this year, IDEA says the ‘data suggest that the backsliding episode began at least in 2019’
The United States has joined an annual list of “backsliding” democracies for the first time, the International IDEA think tank said on Monday, pointing to a “visible deterioration” it said began in 2019.
Globally, more than one in four people live in a backsliding democracy, a proportion that rises to more than two in three with the addition of authoritarian or “hybrid” regimes, according to the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.
“This year we coded the United States as backsliding for the first time, but our data suggest that the backsliding episode began at least in 2019,” it said in its report titled Global State of Democracy 2021.
“The United States is a high-performing democracy, and even improved its performance in indicators of impartial administration (corruption and predictable enforcement) in 2020. However, the declines in civil liberties and checks on government indicate that there are serious problems with the fundamentals of democracy,” said Alexander Hudson, a co-author of the report.
