Make no mistake about it, global democracy is under threat.
In the 2019 Democracy Index, the average global score for democracy fell from 5.48 in 2018 to 5.44. This follows a decade long regression and culminates in the worst average global score since The Economist first produced the index in 2006.
According to The Economist Intelligence Unit, 48.4% of the world’s population lives in some kind of democracy, be it a ‘full democracy’ or a ‘flawed democracy.’ That number is shockingly small, especially when you consider the fact that only 5.7% reside in a “full democracy”, and that that number is down from 8.9% in 2015. The reason that number is down is as a result of the US demotion from a ‘full democracy’ to a ‘flawed democracy’ in 2016.
If less than half of the world lives in some kind of a democracy, how many under authoritarian rule? According to the index, 35.6% of the world population, more than one-third, live under Authoritarian rule. That is mostly due to the almost 1.4 billion people that live in China.
“The global march of democracy stalled in the 2000s and retreated in the second decade of the 21st century. But the recent wave of protest in the developing world and the populist insurgency in the mature democracies show the potential for democratic renewal.” Joan Hoey, Editor, The Democracy Index
When you consider that an earlier report from the Council of Foreign Relations showed that Democratic states are “less likely to breed terrorists or to be state sponsors of terrorism,” and are more likely to be “active participants in the global economy,” this slide away from democracy gives good reason for alarm.