“Democracy faces perfect storm as the world becomes more authoritarian Many democratic governments are increasingly adopting authoritarian tactics, accentuated by the Covid-19 pandemic, while autocratic regimes are consolidating their power. The world is becoming more authoritarian as autocratic regimes become even more brazen in their repression. Many democratic governments are backsliding and are adopting authoritarian tactics by restricting free speech and weakening the rule of law, a trend exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. These are the key findings of the “The Global State of Democracy Report 2021 – Building Resilience in a Pandemic Era”, published on 22 November 2021 by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), an intergovernmental organization based in Stockholm. “The Global State of Democracy report is not a wakeup call, it’s an alarm bell. Authoritarianism advances in every corner of the earth. Universal values – the pillars of civilization that protect the most vulnerable – are under threat. The EU shares many of the challenges. But we do have a unique and diverse experience of democracy…More than two-thirds of the world’s population now live in backsliding democracies or autocratic regimes…”

• The Global State of Democracy Report 2021 can be accessed here. It includes regional reports on Africa and the Middle East; the Americas; Asia and the Pacific and Europe.