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Is It Just Me, or Does It Seem Like Democracy Is on the Decline Around the World?
Around the globe, democracy—long seen as the gold standard of governance—is facing challenges that feel unprecedented in their scale and intensity.
4 min readNov 19, 2024
Is It Just Me, or Does It Seem Like Democracy Is on the Decline Around the World?
It’s a question many of us have been asking as we scroll through headlines filled with stories of authoritarian leaders consolidating power, elections undermined by disinformation, and democratic institutions under siege.
Around the globe, democracy—long seen as the gold standard of governance—is facing challenges that feel unprecedented in their scale and intensity.
The Backslide: A Global Snapshot
Democracy isn’t collapsing overnight, but a gradual erosion is unmistakable.
A number of countries once seen as democratic role models are showing worrying signs of backsliding. According to the Freedom House 2024 report, global democracy has been in decline for nearly two decades, with more nations moving toward authoritarianism than toward democracy.
