Democracy in Peril: It’s Sliding and it Shows!

According to a recent report released by the Institute for Democracy Electoral Assistance (IDEA) democracy itself is in a state of retrograde. The 2021 IDEA report is relatively long and while it does encompass a thorough and well established overview of many of the trends toward the backsliding of democracy, it is also understandably missing a few pieces to the immensity of the full story (as is this article, inevitably). I will draw out some highlights and attempt to summarize the report though I will also link in some aspects of the backsliding of democracy which are not explicitly included in it as well.

Authoritarianism, Backsliding and COVID-19

The IDEA report and its distinct terminology argues that: “The world is becoming more authoritarian as non-democratic regimes become even more brazen in their repression and many democratic governments suffer from backsliding by adopting their tactics of restricting free speech and weakening the rule of law, exacerbated by what threatens to become a ‘new normal’ of Covid-19 restrictions.”

In order to grab a fuller perspective of what this term ‘backsliding means’, the report offers a thorough definition: “Backsliding democracies are those that have experienced gradual but significant weakening of Checks on Government and Civil Liberties…