People in the USA are demonstrating against the authoritarian behavior of their president.Image: keystone
Democracy as a form of government is under pressure worldwide, and autocrats are on the rise. An annual report now shows the extent of the crisis – but in addition to the collapse of the USA, there are also a few bright spots.
03/18/2026, 07:17Mar 18, 2026, 7:34 a.m
The international institute “Varieties of Democracy” (V-Dem for short), based at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, publishes a report every year on the state of democracy in countries around the world. The edition for 2025 was published on Tuesday. The researchers come to some worrying findings.
9 findings from the report
- In almost every fourth country in the world democratic elements became weaker in 2025.
- 74 percent of the world’s people live in autocratic states. In 2005 it was still pretty accurate the half of all people.
- The worldwide spread of democracy is on the lowest level since 1978.
- The level of democracy for an average citizen in Western Europe and North America is lower than it has been for 50 years – especially because of the loss of democracy in the USA.
- The USA will that first time in 50 years no longer assigned to the “liberal democracy” category. US democracy is as weak as it was last in 1965. By global standards, the country is falling from rank 20 to rank 51 away.
- Never have each other at the same time so many countries autocratized like in the past few years. While still at 2005 12 countries a tendency towards autocratization has been identified, it will be 2025 44 countries.
- Democracy is also suffering in Europe. In 7 EU member states A tendency towards autocratization can be observed, also in Great Britain.
- 41 percent of the world’s population live in states that are becoming more autocratic.
- Only 7 percent still live in liberal democracies.
What is examined and how countries are classified
The authors classify the world’s countries into five different basic categories, depending on their performance in core democratic elements (see box). The five categories are:
- Liberal democracies (for example Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Japan, South Korea, Australia or Taiwan)
- Representative democracies (for example the USA, Brazil, Great Britain, Canada, South Africa, Sri Lanka or Nepal)
- Gray area between democracy and autocracy (for example Malaysia, Indonesia, Mexico, Albania or Bosnia-Herzegovina)
- Representative autocracies (for example Singapore, Russia, Türkiye, Philippines, Ukraine, India, Hungary or Serbia)
- Closed autocracies (for example China, Afghanistan, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Morocco, Qatar or Saudi Arabia)
This is examined in the V-Dem report
The authors examine a variety of elements that are essential for a democratic form of government. These include, for example, the Conducting fair, free electionsthat political parties and candidates can form freely and run for office, that elected politicians adhere to applicable laws and the constitution or even that liberal elements like Freedom of speech and expression or freedom of the press are guaranteed. In addition, it evaluates how well power-limiting and balancing factors function in the political system (“checks and balances”), whether and how well they work Separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches works and whether individual freedom rights be guaranteed.
5 trends towards more democracy
Despite all the concern about democracy and individual freedom in the world, there are still a few “rays of hope,” as the authors note.
- 18 countries in the world continue to show one Tendency towards more democracy. Positive examples are Mauritiuswhich for the first time belongs to the category of representative democracies or Lithuaniawhich made the leap to liberal democracy.
- Even larger countries like Brazil, Poland, the Dominican Republic or Sri Lanka have shown a tendency towards democratic strengthening in 2025.
- In Botswana, Guatemala and Mauritius holds since 2023 a phase of democratization.
- A particularly notable example is South Korea: The country prevented one attempted coup of then President Yoon Suk Yeol and accused him. South Korean democracy demonstrated resilience and re-established itself as a liberal democracy.
- The following still applies: When an autocracy initiates a democratization process, The success rate is high at 70 percent.
By the way: The Swiss democracy comes off well in the report. The democracy index for the Swiss Confederation is: fourth highest in the world. Only the Nordic countries Sweden, Norway and Denmark achieve a higher value. The latter leads the rankings.
Here The entire report, including a ranking of all countries, can be downloaded.
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