Half of European democracies suffer erosion, Africa shows resilience: Watchdog report

Half of the world’s democracies are in a state of decline amid worsening civil liberties and rule of law while already authoritarian governments are becoming more oppressive, Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) said on Wednesday. In Europe, almost half of all democracies have suffered erosion in the last five years, it said.

On a positive note, Africa remained resilient in the face of instability. Countries including The Gambia, Niger and Zambia all saw improvements in democratic quality, the report said.

In its annual report, the watchdog said that democratic institutions were being undermined by restrictions on freedom of expression and increasing distrust in the legitimacy of elections.

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Several factors, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, high inflation, a looming global recession, climate change and the pandemic pose significant challenges to the health of democracies worldwide.

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“The world faces a multitude of crises, from the cost of living to risks of nuclear confrontation and the acceleration of the climate crisis,” IDEA said in its 2022 study on the state of democracy, relying on data compiled since 1975.

“At the same time, we see global democracy in decline. It is a toxic mix.”

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IDEA bases its Global State of Democracy Indices on more than 100 variables including measures such as freedom of expression, and personal integrity and security, which are then grouped and aggregated into broader categories.

The report said the number of “backsliding” countries – those with the most severe democratic erosion – has never been so high. Itincluded Poland, Hungary and also the United States, with its problems of political polarisation, purported institutional dysfunction and threats to civil liberties.

It said democracy globally is under threat from challenges to the legitimacy of credible election results, restrictions on online freedoms and rights, intractable corruption, and the rise of extreme right parties.

“Never has there been such an urgency for democracies to respond, to show their citizens that they can forge new, innovative social contracts that bind people together rather than divide them,” IDEA said.

The report found that authoritarian governments were engaging in ever more repression of dissent, and that more than two-thirds of the world’s population now lived in “backsliding” democracies or under authoritarian rule.

Globally, the number of countries moving toward authoritarianism was more than double the number moving toward democracy measured over the past six years.

(With inputs from agencies)

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