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Democratic countries are now in the minority, freedom of expression is declining, and high levels of disinformation and polarization fuel democratic backsliding. This, and much more, is reported in the latest Democracy Report from the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg.
The wave of democratic backsliding, or autocratization, has been ongoing for 25 years and shows no sign of slowing down, according to the report, authored by a team lead by professor Staffan I Lindberg at the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg.
More countries are autocratizing
45 countries are autocratizing in 2024, an increase from only twelve countries 20 years ago, or 42 countries last year. Many are influential regional powers with large populations, such as Argentina, India, Indonesia, and Mexico.
“But Western Europe and North America are not immune. Persistent declines in several countries over the past few years – even if it is gradual – start adding up,” says Staffan I Lindberg.
Freedom of Expression Affected
Among the top declining indicators that V-Dem measures, the ones relating to freedom of expression are affected the most. They include for example media freedom, harassment of journalists, and freedom of discussion. Freedom of expression is deteriorating in 44 countries in 2024 – a quarter of all the countries in the world – the highest recorded so far, and up from 35 last year.
“Freedom of expression is often first to be attacked during autocratization, and the data shows that government efforts at censoring the media is the preferred weapon of choice against democracy in the 45 autocratizing countries. Adding to this, half of all autocratizing countries increasingly use government disinformation to shape public opinion,” says Staffan I Lindberg.
Polarization is increasing in a quarter of all countries in the world. More than half of all countries affected by increasing political polarization are democracies.
Any good news?
Democracy levels are rising in 19 countries. Twelve of the current democratizers started as autocracies, and nine of them transitioned to democracy. The report also finds that autocratization can be halted and reversed, which is currently the case in ten countries, among them Brazil and Poland.
Among the countries improving on democracy levels, the report lists three new countries: Ecuador, Poland and Sri Lanka. Ecuador is also one of the countries that made a democratic turnaround and reversed an ongoing autocratization process.
Introducing a Democracy Watchlist
The report launches a watchlist of countries showing early signs of improving or declining democracy to keep an eye on in the near future. Among the seven countries showing signs of deterioration are Slovakia, Slovenia and Cyprus.
Even if events in 2025 are not included in the V-Dem data the report builds on, adding to the bleak picture is the recent events in the USA.
“The USA now seems to be heading towards a transition away from democracy under President Trump. In my view, the reverberations of this are and will be enormous across the world,” says Staffan I Lindberg.
About V-Dem
V-Dem produces the largest global dataset on democracy with over 31 million data points for 202 countries from 1789 to 2024. Involving more than 4,200 scholars and other country experts, V-Dem measures hundreds of different attributes of democracy.
The V-Dem Institute is hosted by the Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Read more at www.v-dem.net
Staffan Ingemar Lindberg Professor
Department of Political Science University of Gothenburg, staffan.i.lindberg@pol.gu.se
Telephone
+46 31-786 12 26
+46 733-76 15 40
The Report “25 Years of Autocratization – Democracy Trumped?” is available for download at 12:00 CET, March 13, 2025, at the V-Dem website: www.v-dem.net
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