Democracy in the USA is deteriorating at unprecedented speed by Staffan Lindberg Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute   Mar. 2026   Democratic backsliding is now happening in well-established democracies. Democracy in the USA is deteriorating at unprecedented speed, and media and journalists are increasingly targeted across the world. This, and more, is reported in the latest Democracy Report from the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg.   Nearly a quarter of the world’s nations are going through democratic backsliding, or autocratization, in 2025, and six out of the ten new autocratizing countries identified in the 2026 Democracy Report are in Europe and North America. Among them are large and influential countries like Italy, the United Kingdom, and the USA, according to the report authored by a team led by Professor Staffan Lindberg at the V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg.   “The fact that many populous and economically powerful countries are autocratizing is especially worrying. Several of these countries have the economic and political weight to reshape international organizations, norms, and trade, effectively reshaping the global order. I think we are already seeing the effect of that,” says Staffan Lindberg.   Three major trends in democratic backsliding   The report finds three clear patterns in the current trend of democratic backsliding. The first one is the democratic backsliding in some traditionally stable democracies; the second is significant reversals and often breakdown of democracy in countries that successfully democratized during the late 20th and early 21st centuries; and thirdly, the deepening of autocracy in already autocratic states.   Freedom of Expression, a core aspect of democracy, shows the most drastic global decline, and is the most common target among autocratizing leaders over the past 25 years.   “The second most common target are the liberal aspects of democracy, like rule of law, and checks and balances that prevent the abuse of powers, which are deteriorating in a worrying number of countries. For example, rule of law is deteriorating in 22 countries, including the USA,” says Staffan Lindberg.   Democracy in the USA deteriorating at unprecedented scale and speed   The U.S. democracy is currently in a much faster deterioration process than any other democracy in modern times. Within only one year, the USA’s score on the V-Dem Liberal Democracy index has declined by 24 percent, while its world rank dropped from 20th to 51st place out of 179 nations.   The liberal aspects of democracy show the largest decline in the U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term can be summarized as a rapid concentration of powers in the presidency, according to the report.   “The current U.S. administration has been undercutting institutionalized checks and balances, politicizing civil service and oversight bodies, and intimidating the judiciary, alongside attacks on the press, academia, civil liberties, and dissenting voices ”says Staffan Lindberg.   Since election specific indicators are only evaluated during national election years, there has not been a change in those indicators in 2025 for the U.S.   “The 2026 American midterm elections will be a critical test for the quality of elections, and democracy, in the United States. If election indicators also decline, the U.S. will fall even further,” says Staffan Lindberg.   On a more positive note, the report shows that 18 nations worldwide (10 percent) are currently democratizing, with large countries such as Brazil and Poland continuing their democratization processes. In the majority of these countries, media freedom is improved. Botswana, Guatemala, and Mauritius are the three new democratizing countries identified in the 2025 data.   http://www.v-dem.net/news/press-release-democratic-backsliding-reaches-western-democracies-with-us-decline-unprecedented http://www.v-dem.net/publications/democracy-reports/ http://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2026/mar/17/trump-is-aiming-for-dictatorship-thats-the-verdict-of-the-worlds-most-credible-democracy-watchdog http://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2026/growing-shadow-autocracy http://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/03/19/rigging-the-vote-trumps-threats-to-elections/ http://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/maga-is-spouting-nonsense-on-the-save-america-act-heres-the-truth/ http://www.democracydocket.com/   http://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/trump-administration-escalates-undermining-elections-fulton-county-fbi http://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/save-act-and-election-power-grab http://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trumps-administration-is-loaded-with-people-who-backed-his-false-2020-election-claims http://lucid.substack.com/p/the-big-lie-foreign-interference   * 26 Mar. 2026   Orban's Hungarian government accused of mass voter intimidation ahead of election. (BBC News)   Viktor Orban's Fidesz government in Hungary stands accused of mass voter intimidation in a film released on Thursday ahead of 12 April parliamentary elections, in which the ruling party is trailing in the opinion polls.   In the film, voters, mayors, former election officials and a police officer claim that large sums of money are being offered to pressure people to vote for Fidesz.   Fifty-three of Hungary's 106 individual constituencies and up to 600,000 voters are targeted, the film alleges – potentially 10% of the expected turnout of six million.   After 16 years of Fidesz rule under Orban, most recent polls indicate that the party is trailing Peter Magyar's centre-right opposition party Tisza by at least that margin..   http://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c36r0068xp2o Visit the related web page
	Liberal Democracy depends on Social Rights by Aoife Nolan Council of Europe, agencies   Mar. 2026   The High-Level Conference on Social Rights-European Social Charter of 18-19 March will take place against a backdrop of the long-term erosion of liberal representative democracy across many parts of the world.   In many democratic societies, growing inequality levels, lower social mobility and economic insecurity have accompanied increased economic stagnation.   These trends were exacerbated by the pandemic and the slow-simmering cost-of-living challenges that brutally accelerated into a crisis as a result of the inflationary surges following Russia’s launch of a full-scale invasion against Ukraine in early 2022.   And inflation is on the rise again following the US-Israeli war on Iran that that began last month – a war whose economic fallout is not yet fully clear but threatens to be significant.   There is the clear and growing evidence that delivery of social rights – rights to housing, education, social protection and decent living standards – is fundamental to sustaining confidence and trust in democracy.   For instance, Eurofound’s Living and Working in Europe 2024 Report highlights declining trust in institutions, closely linked to financial insecurity.   Crucially, Eurofound’s research demonstrates that those more affected by the cost-of-living crisis have a much lower level of trust in national governments (and the EU). This was particularly true of those reporting that they struggle to make ends meet or that they are behind in their energy bills.   The view that liberal representative democracy is an effective deliverer of the goods and services fundamental to social rights enjoyment and the ability to live a decent life is under serious pressure across Europe.   We are now at the point where it is well-established that there is a relationship between enthusiasm for political parties that claim to want to “implement the general will of the people irrespective of existing liberal democratic institutions” and growing concern about access to goods and services linked to social rights enjoyment and the ability to live a decent life.   Indeed, the question of the relationship between social rights, democracy, democratic stability and security is addressed directly in the Reykjavik Declaration that was adopted by heads of state and government at the 4th Council of Europe (CoE) Summit in May 2023.   This Declaration stated that “Social justice is crucial for democratic stability and security, and in this regard we reaffirm our full commitment to the protection and implementation of social rights as guaranteed by the European’ Social Charter system.”   This understanding of the centrality of social rights achievement to democracy security is also reflected in the New Democratic Pact process of the Council of Europe, a key element of which is to protect democracy through safeguarding “the structural integrity of democratic systems, from European and outside actors, while addressing the socio-political roots of disillusionment, extremism, and polarisation”.   In this regard, the Pact speaks of promoting social rights for all, “tackling the impact of socio-economic inequalities that erode confidence in what democracy can deliver – leaving no one behind”.   There has never been a more important time to do this. In its work, the CoE European Committee of Social Rights has seen clearly the legal and political challenges posed by the convergences and divergences between social rights enjoyment and democratic governance in Europe over the last decades.   The ongoing failure of national law, policy and institutions to respond to increasing socio-economic and other inequalities including wealth and income inequality is sharply evident in the Committee’s work on the cost-of-living and housing crises, the erosion of social protection across Europe, as well as our depressingly large body of case-law focused on significant steps backwards in terms of labour rights, which began in the 1980s but has intensified significantly in the last two decades.   Social rights are under pressure in Europe. It is not surprising that democracy is, too.   If the Pact’s aims are to be achieved – that is, “achieving democratic resilience” and “rebuilding trust in democracy”, it is vital that social justice should be given substantive meaning and linked with concrete objectives.   Specifically, social justice and its associated objectives should be conceptualised and framed in terms of legally binding social rights under the Charter. These rights provide content and form to social justice that is not provided by any other CoE or international instrument or initiative.   * Aoife Nolan is president of the Council of Europe European Committee of Social Rights, the leading European monitoring mechanism on social and economic rights. She is professor of international human-rights law and director of the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham.   25 Mar. 2026   Council of Europe adopts New Social Rights Declaration. (HRW)   Amid a bleak political landscape of rising authoritarianism and anti-rights political agendas, the Council of Europe and its member states adopted a new declaration last week in Chisinau, Moldova, reinforcing their commitment to social rights.   The Chisinau Declaration recognizes that “democratic stability and security are directly impacted by rising socio-economic inequalities and the cost-of-living crisis” and that “ensuring social rights as enshrined notably in the European Social Charter is essential to countering growing threats to democracy.” This high-level statement has the potential to encourage a necessary change in direction across the region—and it comes at a pivotal moment.   Political actors openly hostile to human rights and social justice are gaining influence. European governments are increasingly implementing policies that either seek to roll back rights protections or do away with them altogether.   First signed in 1961 and then revised in 1996, the Charter is sometimes described as “the social constitution of Europe.” It sets out rights—“social rights” in European legal shorthand—relating to employment, housing, health, education, social security, and the right to be free from poverty and social exclusion, among others.   Aoife Nolan, President of European Committee of Social Rights, the body that monitors the Charter’s implementation, has argued forcefully, citing evidence, that “the delivery of social rights is fundamental to sustaining confidence and trust in democracy.”   Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner and Olivier de Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on poverty, also published a joint statement ahead of the conference, saying, “The current threats to democratic life are largely the result of the sentiment, within certain groups of the population, that they are being left behind and are not benefiting from general progress.”   The Chisinau Declaration recognizes the challenge presented by the gap in democratic trust caused by unfulfilled rights promises, and responds by committing to greater investment in social rights as “both a moral imperative and a strategic choice” to bolster democratic resilience.   Governments and regional institutions across Europe should now use the Chisinau declaration’s momentum to take concrete action, translating rhetorical commitment into practice. They should act with purpose to take seriously the rights concerns of people who feel left behind. The task of rebuilding fractured trust is urgent; improving people’s lives and rights is an essential place from which to start.   http://www.socialeurope.eu/liberal-democracy-depends-on-social-rights http://www.mynewsdesk.com/eurofound/pressreleases/wellbeing-and-social-cohesion-falter-in-europe-despite-economic-progress-3434632 http://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/social-rights-an-essential-component-of-the-fight-against-poverty http://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/25/council-of-europe-adopts-new-social-rights-declaration Visit the related web page
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