In the long run,
the facts are on the side of the optimists.
To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., the arc of history bends toward progress. But progress doesn't just happen. People work hard to discover ways forward.
The What Works Initiative
highlights positive outcomes on difficult issues – and how people achieved them.
Democracy spread like it was inevitable after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, covering most of the globe. But the movement stalled and the moment turned. The 21st century brought the so-called democratic recession, as authoritarians from China’s Xi to Russia’s Putin to Turkey’s Erdogan tightened their grips on power and chiseled away at the independence of the press, the courts, and the other public institutions.
But even before an energized Hungarian electorate voted self-described “illiberal democrat” Viktor Orban out of 16 years in office last week, there were signs of a democratic uptick. Just days before, the Economist Intelligence Unit noted that democratic scores had held stable or ticked upward in three out of four countries around the world over the previous year. The overall global score improved slightly. The main driver is higher levels of political participation. More people are voting, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Other democracy-watch organizations see the decline continuing as democratic institutions have been hollowed out. The damage that Orban, for example, has done to the press and the judiciary over 16 years will not be corrected by a single election. Others, like the Economist, emphasize whether elections are free, fair, and actually lead to a transfer of power.
Sources: The Economist; Freedom House; V-Dem