Building Resilience in a Pandemic Era

IDEA-Report on the global state of democracy 2021

By Rolf Gollob

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), based in Stockholm, Sweden, is an intergovernmental organisation with a mandate to advance democracy worldwide (https://www.idea.int/). We are very pleased to draw your attention to the remarkable report on the state of democracy in 2021 (the link to the full report can be found below). As IDEA points out, the new millennium started optimistically as a “century of democracy”. The future looked bright, as many erstwhile authoritarian and hybrid regimes became democracies. The will of the people as the only legitimate form of authority seemed to be a popular and rapidly spreading ideal. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated a trend of increasing authoritarianism across the globe, with many countries sliding back down the democratic scale.

Myanmar, which had been a fledgling democracy just beginning to recover from decades of military rule, fell victim to a military coup, the leaders of which even cited faulty elections as the justification for their course of action. Perhaps the greatest blow to democratic ideals was the fall of the people’s government in Afghanistan, which has seen war being waged for the sake of preserving democratic principles. Significantly, the United States, the bastion of global democracy, fell victim to authoritarian tendencies itself, and was knocked down a significant number of steps on the democratic scale.

However, even in this hour of despair, hope remains – as the report points out. Countries across the world have come together to fight this disease, and this has ushered in a period of unprecedented global cooperation. Popular protests for better government in countries such as Sudan and Chile have led to important reforms. In Malawi, a landmark decision to annul fraudulent election results set an important precedent, one representing the victory of democratic, independent institutions over government pressure. Successful elections in Montenegro and Bolivia, as well as protests against government corruption in Bulgaria, are further examples of the resilience of democracy.

Please find here a link to the full report:

https://www.idea.int/gsod/sites/default/files/2021-11/the-global-state-of-democracy-2021_0.pdf