Donald Trump’s authoritarian drift in his second term places the country on a par with Hungary or Turkey, according to a ranking by Sweden’s V-Dem Institute
Democratic backsliding is advancing in the developed world. The annual report from Sweden’s V-Dem Institute leaves no room for doubt: almost a quarter of the world experienced democratic backsliding, or a shift towards autocratization, in 2025, and six of the 10 newly regressive countries identified in the research are located in Europe and North America, including G-7 powers such as Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
But the most unsettling conclusion reached by the Swedish institute is that the United States — once a proud beacon of the more or less free world — is no longer a liberal democracy and is now on a par with countries like Hungary or Turkey, thanks to President Donald Trump. Autocracy is also spreading throughout Europe, but its reach extends far beyond the Old Continent: 41% of the world’s population (3.4 billion people) now live in countries where democracy is eroding.
The institute, which belongs to the University of Gothenburg and uses 48 metrics in its evaluation, is one of the most reliable sources when it comes to rating the state of governments around the world, and the conclusion of its 2026 study confirms the worst fears about the authoritarian drift of the U.S. under Trump’s leadership.
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I can remember when lots of the reactionary centrists and not a few on the left, oh, and of course, the right wing blow-hards, were playing Tone Police for everyone in 2016, and 2020 and again in 2024: lecturing us all about how uncivil it all was to be talking about fascism in relation to conservatives.
I wonder where all the WELLACKTUALLY guys are now.
A lot of the predictions and fears did not come true during Trump‘s first presidency.
That was because the guard rails were still in place.
The pedofile class doesn’t want democracy
Worldwide, democracy has regressed to its lowest levels since the mid-1970s
I’ve been saying over and over again here, that it’s generally been going backwards since the 70’s. This goes for democracy, respect for human rights and minorities, and the peace movement.
And many people here simply don’t believe it. (I’m guessing younger ones)
We need a second hippie revolution. And I don’t mean the half-assed underground “comebacks” from the late 90s and 2010s, a real movement that actually influences policy.
Hippies were a CIA OP to distract the left from organising and doing drugs instead.
Given that elections are the defining feature of a democracy, I think it would be prudent to wait until after the mid term elections to start proclaiming the demise of American democracy. Granted, the Republicans are trying their best with mass disenfranchisement, but it remains to be seen how effective they will be.
Giggle. We’ve been playing “wait and see” for a decade now.
Elections don’t solve this. We’ve seen that high-level Democrats are no different than high-level Republicans. Biden refused to investigate the Epstein files, he refused to prosecute Trump, and he refused to target gerrymandering/election interference.
There’s no version of this where the old America magically returns. That’s the same logic trap that ushered in this entire mess. There are plenty of MAGA who truly believe that they are shaking up the system and that just one more election will solve everything.
THIS. IS. THE. FUTURE.
We are living in it. The trajectory is set. We didn’t stop militarization of the police when they stepped on our rights. We didn’t stop data collection when we were warned. We didn’t stop gross financial mismanagement, corporate influence, gerrymandering and all the other things that make a democracy work.
We aren’t living in a fascist takeover. That happened years ago. We are living in its aftermath. We are frogs in a simmering pot, watching the bubbles float past us and wondering how to turn off the heat. It doesn’t matter now, the damage is done. The momentum takes control.
I find this hard to believe. What is the reasoning for that?
Edit: I read the report. The reasoning seems believable, but the tiers seem to be too narrow. Also the title of the post is a clickbait.
Some may argue that it is imperialistic propaganda, because it doesn’t include concept of people’s democracy.
