Troiano analyzed data from the Polity IV Project, which measures the degree of democracy or autocracy in countries over time, assigning each country a numerical score ranging from -10 (full autocracy) ...

President Joe Biden’s State of the Union claim that global democracies have gotten stronger and autocracies weaker in the last couple of years lacks evidence. Recent research suggests that democracy ...

Eight years on from Donald Trump’s descent down the escalator, the democratic doom boom in American commentary shows little sign of dissipating. “Democratic backsliding,” a term originating in ...

As winter neared, many observers were concerned about the resilience of European democracies during Russia’s war against Ukraine. The triple pressures of economic downturn and inflation, energy crisis ...

At the outset of the digital age, democracies seemed ascendant. The United States and like-minded countries were at the cutting edge of technological development. Policymakers were pointing to the ...

This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. Democracies’ anti-corruption efforts are flagging, with global corruption perception indexes hitting their lowest ...

Internet shutdowns are an increasingly popular tool for digital repression. It’s what many in wealthy, liberal democratic countries can’t ever imagine happening—authorities blocking access to social ...

People have long assumed that autocrats and dictators have an advantage in waging war. Today, as the novel coronavirus sweeps across the globe, there is some speculation that autocracies have an edge ...

Note: Data is based on 106 countries classified as democracies and includes some fully self-governing territories whose sovereign status is disputed. Refer to the methodology to learn more about how ...

When Francis Fukuyama published his bestselling book, The End of History, in 1992, democracies were on the rise. Today, democracies across the world are declining in number, according to Freedom House ...

The challenges of pandemic and climate change are being closely studied, but have done little so far to settle the eternal debate over whether authoritarian governments or democracies fare better in ...