2022 has been the year of living dangerously. Democracies around the world face a multitude of crises – from Russia’s war in Ukraine to a looming recession and the existential threat of climate change. It is a time when good democratic governance should be coveted, defended, embraced. But the facts tell us a different story. International IDEA’s Global State of Democracy 2022 does not make for pretty reading. It shows that the quality of democracy is declining in half of democracies around the world while the number of countries with the most severe form of democratic erosion – what we call backsliding – is at its peak…”
