Trend Global spread of autocracy and declining freedom

Summary

The report finds that the number of autocracies in the world is rising and that more than three billion people live under such regimes. Regimes moving towards autocracy systematically undermine democratic institutions and basic rights such as free elections, press freedom and civil liberties. Global freedom has declined for the nineteenth year in a row, with sixty countries deteriorating on political rights and liberties and only thirty-four showing some improvement. Repression is also intensifying online, as more governments control the internet, suppress online protest and tighten censorship. The report records that even in the almost 250-year-old democracy of the United States a determined attempt has recently been made to tear down the liberal ethos of democratic institutions, with academic freedom at leading universities no longer a given and journalists being barred from the White House.