WASHINGTON: Democracy is under assault and in retreat around the globe, a crisis that has intensified as America’s democratic standards erode at an accelerating pace, according to Freedom in the World 2018, the latest edition of the annual report on political rights and civil liberties, released on Tuesday by Freedom House.
The report finds that 2017 was the 12th consecutive year of decline in global freedom. Seventy-one countries suffered net declines in political rights and civil liberties in 2017, with only 35 registering gains. Once-promising states such as Turkey, Venezuela, Poland, and Tunisia were among those experiencing declines in democratic standards. The recent democratic opening in Myanmar was permanently damaged by a shocking campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya minority.
“Democracy is facing its most serious crisis in decades,” said Michael J. Abramowitz, president of Freedom House. “Democracy’s basic tenets—including guarantees of free and fair elections, the rights of minorities, freedom of the press, and the rule of law—are under siege around the world.”
Freedom in the World 2018 reports on how China and Russia have taken advantage of the retreat of leading democracies both to increase repression at home and to export their malign influence to other countries. To maintain power, these autocratic regimes are acting beyond their borders to squelch open debate, pursue dissidents, and compromise rules-based institutions.
A major development of 2017 was the retreat of the United States as both a champion and an exemplar of democracy. While Freedom House has tracked a slow decline in political rights and civil liberties in the United States for the past seven years, the decline accelerated in 2017, owing to growing evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 elections, violations of basic ethical standards by the new administration, and a reduction in government transparency.
Although U.S. institutions like the press and the judiciary have remained resilient in the face of unprecedented attacks from President Trump, the attacks could ultimately leave them weakened, with serious implications for the health of U.S. democracy and America’s place in the world. Meanwhile, the abdication of the traditional U.S. role as the leading champion of democracy is of deep concern and potential consequence in the ongoing struggle against modern authoritarians and their pernicious ideas.
“The core institutions of American democracy are being battered by an administration that has treated the country’s traditional checks and balances with disdain,” Abramowitz said.
“The Trump administration has made a sharp break from the political consensus of the last 70 years by casting aside democracy as the animating force behind American foreign policy,” Abramowitz added. “The hastening withdrawal of the United States from its historical commitment to supporting democracy overseas makes the challenge posed by authoritarian regimes all the more powerful and threatening.”
In another significant development, Turkey moved from Partly Free to Not Free as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan broadened and intensified the crackdown on his perceived opponents that began after a failed 2016 coup attempt, with dire consequences for Turkish citizens.
Over the period since the 12-year slide began in 2006, 113 countries have seen a net decline, and only 62 have experienced a net improvement.
Key global findings
Of the 195 countries assessed, 88 (45 percent) were rated Free, 58 (30 percent) Partly Free, and 49 (25 percent) Not Free.
The finding shows that the United States declines in its political rights during Trump’s tenure.
However, corrupt and repressive states such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea put global stability at risk by perpetuating long-running regional conflicts, fueling humanitarian crises, and in North Korea’s case, rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal.
Sharp democratic declines in Tunisia in 2017 threatened the only Free country in the Arab world and the sole success story from the 2011 Arab Spring.
The forced resignation under military pressure of elected president Robert Mugabe pushed Zimbabwe over the threshold from Partly Free to Not Free.
The reported placing Pakistan within a Partly Free category which scored 4 out of seven in giving space to Political rights, 5 out 7 for civil rights that gives Pakistan 4.5 ratings.
Myanmar’s campaign of ethnic cleansing in 2017 demonstrated the flawed nature of the country’s limited democratic opening, which had been welcomed by the international community since 2010.
Worst of the Worst
Of the 49 countries designated as Not Free, the following 12 have the worst aggregate scores for political rights and civil liberties, earning less than 10 points on a 100-point scale (beginning with the least free): Syria, South Sudan, Eritrea, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Equatorial Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Sudan, Central African Republic, and Libya.
Countries to watch
In Serbia, Freedom House concludes that the tolerance of European Union leaders toward President Aleksandar Vucic’s “authoritarian tendencies allowed him to further sideline the opposition and undermine what remains of the country’s independent media.”
Georgia, Afghanistan, and Macedonia are also named as “countries to watch in 2018” that may experience important developments deserving “special scrutiny.”
It says opposition alliances are “crystallizing ahead of Afghanistan’s long-overdue parliamentary elections, but preparations for the polls have been lacking, and it is uncertain whether they will be held as planned in 2018.”
In Tbilisi, the report says, “the ruling Georgian Dream party recently pushed through constitutional amendments in Georgia that – combined with the financial backing of its reclusive billionaire patron, [former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili] – will make an effective challenge by the fractured opposition in future elections even more unlikely, potentially cementing the party’s control for years to come.”
In Skopje, Freedom House says Macedonia’s “democratically elected, ethnically inclusive government” of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is “seeking to root out corruption and other systemic abuses that grew worse under its scandal-plagued predecessor.”