The People Have Spoken: No More Democracy!
Mykola Lazarenko / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / Handout via Reuters / Reuters
Apologists forpolitical freedom are sounding thealarm: Democracy is indecline around theworld. This was especially clear fromthe latest report onpolitical rights andcivil liberties issued byFreedom House inlate January. Although asteady negative trend has continued since 2005, 2014 was aparticularly grim year: Thelevel offreedoms declined in61 countries, but increased inonly 33 arecord low forthe last nine years.
Freedom House evaluates thebehavior ofthe world's various states according tothe criteria of1) political rights theability tofreely participate inchoosing leaders andmaking decisions important tothe community, and2) civil rights thefreedom toput forward opinions, institutions andpersonal autonomy independent ofstate policy, theexistence ofindependent media andthe protection ofminority rights.
How then toexplain this negative trend, thedecline ofdemocratic freedoms inthe world? Theadvance ofdemocracy has never been alinear process. Inhis book, "The Third Wave: Democratization inthe Late Twentieth Century," American political scientist Samuel Huntington suggests that theprocess consisted ofthree long periods, or waves.
Thefirst wave, 1828-1926, began with therevolutions inthe United States andFrance andeventually led tothe emergence ofdemocracy in29 countries. It was followed bya regressive wave between 1920 and1940, marked bythe rise offascist andcommunist regimes. Thesecond wave ofdemocratization followed theAllied victory inWorld War II andthe process ofdecolonization, increasing thenumber ofdemocracies to36.
Then, between 1958 and1970, anumber offormer colonies experienced thesecond regressive trend away fromdemocracy. Thethird andfinal wave ofdemocratization between 1974 and1991 began with theliberalization ofthe southern European states, aprocess that later spread toSouth American, Asian andcommunist countries.
By1994, thetotal number ofdemocratic states reached 72. Is thecurrent trend simply thethird regressive wave away fromdemocratization?
Not necessarily. Political scientist Jay Ulfelder recently explained that thenumber ofdemocracies has not fallen since 2005. Thedecline indemocracy that Freedom House identified primarily concerns Middle Eastern states andformer Soviet republics that were never especially liberal tobegin with.
Inother words, theproblem is not that anumber ofcountries have stopped following ademocratic model, but that authoritarian regimes have begun tightening thescrews ontheir societies. Thus, according toFreedom House, ofthe eight countries inthe Middle East, only Tunisia managed tobecome more liberal, while therest actually backtracked onfreedoms atrend that began ineach ofthose seven countries even before 2014.
Asimilar dynamic characterized theEurasian region andsub-Saharan Africa. Russia, which earned theclassification ofa non-free state back in2004, has since fallen froma grade of5 to6, with 7 thelowest onthat scale.
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The People Have Spoken: No More Democracy!