Declining US democracy emboldens global authoritarians

STOCKHOLM, Sept 15: The fall of US democracy indicators to their lowest level in half a century is inspiring hardline leaders around the world, a leading global inter-governmental political institute said Tuesday.

"Major indicators of US democracy from press freedom to judicial independence hit their lowest levels in 50 years, and this is reverberating worldwide," the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) said in a report.

"Washington's retreat from the rules-based international order has weakened confidence in multilateralism and emboldened authoritarian leaders and populists," added the .

About 57 percent of the countries studied by IDEA had seen a fall in at least one indicator of its democratic health between 2020 and 2025. The areas assessed include judicial independence, credible elections, freedom of speech and access to justice.

"Of course, patient zero of this global epidemic is the current president of the United States," IDEA secretary general Kevin Casas-Zamora, a former vice president of Costa Rica, told AFP, referring to President Donald Trump.

"I think what happened in the US in 2020 has really had a global impact in terms of legitimising this kind of attack on the credibility of the electoral process," he said of Trump's refusal to acknowledge his election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump returned to office after a 2024 election.

The trend accelerated with the attack on the US Congress building of January 6, 2021 by Trump supporters, Casas-Zamora added.�" AFP