America is leading the world to a very dark place

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Global democratic freedoms have declined for the 20th consecutive year, according to a new report by Freedom House.

So what? Thanks are owed to the US. Pure democracy has always been an outlier. But after a brief period of hope, civil liberties are being stripped back and free expression stifled. This trend

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  is deepening;

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  affects every region of the world; and

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  has been encouraged both at home and abroad by Donald Trump.

New dawn. At the beginning of the 1990s, democracy was on a march. The Berlin Wall had just come down and a wave of political liberalisation was sweeping Europe, Africa and Asia.

How quaint. Francis Fukuyama, an American political scientist, called this moment “the end of history”. He argued that the ascendancy of the US and the breakup of the Soviet Union demonstrated that western liberal democracy was “the final form of human government”.

Spoiler: it didn’t turn out that way. Democratic freedoms have declined every year since 2000. Of the countries measured by Freedom House, only 35 have registered improvements, while 54 have seen declines in political rights and civil liberties. The rights that have suffered most are

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  media freedom;

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  due process; and

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  freedom of expression.

Stark reality. Another report by the Swedish research organisation V-Dem is even more alarming. V-Dem found that the proportion of the global population living in proper democracies, which combine free elections with individual rights and checks on executive power, fell from 17% in 2005 to 7% in 2025. The percentage living in autocracies is 74%, up from 50%.

Autocracy by force. Armed conflict is one part of this. Between 2020 and 2023, military juntas overthrew elected governments in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali. These leaders have stifled civil society, dissolved political parties and legislated to entrench themselves in power.

The creep. Backsliding is another. Freedoms have been eroded by elected figures such as

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  Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who has dismantled the legal system;

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  Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, who attempted a coup to stay in power; and

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  India’s Narendra Modi, who has suppressed civil groups and the media.

America First. The US is now part of this trend. Its score in V-Dem’s index has fallen by 24% under the second Trump administration. The speed and scale of this drop is “unprecedented in modern history”. The second biggest decline came in Donald Trump’s first term.

Run roughshod. V-Dem argues that Trump has managed to outdo the most prominent autocrats in the past 25 years in how quickly he has trampled on his country’s democracy. This includes eliminating checks on presidential power and undermining the rule of law.

Downstream. Whether or not you agree with V-Dem’s assessment, the behaviour of the US matters when it has long tried to lead by example as a “shining city on a hill” and to foster democracy abroad through international development programmes which are now mainly gone.

How it happens. Democracy does not disappear overnight but there is a pattern to its erosion. In times of economic inequality and distrust, would-be autocrats take advantage and hollow out norms and institutions from within. This can result in complete dictatorship but more often than not, says the Lowy Institute, it leads to “lower democratic quality short of complete breakdown”.

How we feel. Dissatisfaction with democracy appears to be growing. A 2020 report found that this has become a majority view around the world, identifying 2005 as the beginning of what has been called a “global democratic recession”. The trend was only bucked by an “island of contentment” comprising Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and the Netherlands.

Between the lines. But dissatisfaction is complicated. The political scientist Ben Seyd argues that low levels of political trust may compel citizens to elect authoritarian leaders, but this doesn’t mean the citizens want to do away with democracy itself.

For example, in recent years, Gen Z protests have swept many parts of the world and in some cases dislodged repressive regimes. Young protesters in Serbia, Nepal and Kenya live in what Freedom House calls “partly free” countries, which hold elections but where some liberties are curtailed. Demands ranged from an end to corruption to an end to police brutality.

In other words… They want better governance. Not authoritarian rule.