Oct 19, 2025 · On October 16th, 2025, a network of 300+ national and homeland security experts, composed of former F.B.I. executives, and Ambassadors, released a first-of-its-kind report titled Accelerating Authoritarian Dynamics: AssessmentofDemocraticDecline. Feb 6, 2025 · Around the world, many longstanding democracies have begun to wither, crumbling under the slow yet advancing spread of authoritarianpopulism. Reports from 2022 suggest that more countries shifted toward authoritarianism than at any point since 1990. If this pattern persists, projections indicate that by 2026, fewer than 5% of people worldwide will reside in a full democracy. Sep 6, 2022 · Has the world become less democratic recently? This article shows that the leading approaches to measuring democracy indicate that this is true: the world has become lessdemocratic in recent years. Nov 20, 2025 · We argue that authoritarian states are enjoying increasing influence over global human rights norms, a development that current United States (US) policy is exacerbating. Authoritarian skepticism of human rights is not new. The global wave of rightward populism. Authoritarian drift in the United States and India does not represent isolated anomalies.The challenge is no longer identifying democraticdecline, but responding to it. The coming years will test whether institutions and citizens can adapt. The report downgraded the freedom scores of 73 countries, representing 75 percent of the global population. Those affected include not just authoritarian states like China, Belarus, and Venezuela, but also troubled democracies like the United States and India.