The State of Democracy Worldwide: V-Dem Institute Releases Its 10th Annual Democracy Report

The V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg has released its tenth annual Democracy Report 2026: Unraveling the Democratic Era? — a comprehensive empirical assessment of democratic health across more than 200 countries, finding that global democracy levels have fallen to their lowest point since the late 1970s and that nearly three-quarters of the world's population now lives under autocratic rule. Authored by Marina Nord, Ana Good God, and Staffan I. Lindberg, the report documents that democratic backsliding has spread beyond fragile states to affect established democracies in Europe and North America, with freedom of expression showing the most severe global decline and deterioration in rule of law and institutional checks appearing across a growing number of countries. V-Dem's framework is distinctive in explicitly measuring deliberative and participatory dimensions of democracy alongside electoral ones, making this report especially relevant to dialogue and deliberation practitioners working to strengthen civic culture. The report directly contextualizes NCDD's mission by documenting the scale of the democratic challenge the field exists to address.

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Every year, the Varieties of Democracy Institute at the University of Gothenburg publishes one of the most comprehensive empirical assessments of democratic health across the globe. The 2026 edition — Unraveling the Democratic Era? — is the tenth in the series, and its findings carry urgent implications for everyone working to strengthen democratic culture and civic participation. Drawing on one of the largest datasets on democracy, covering over 200 countries and more than 600 indicators, the report highlights a continued and accelerating global decline in democratic standards. For NCDD members, this report is not simply a geopolitical document — it is a field-defining account of the conditions in which dialogue, deliberation, and civic engagement work is most urgently needed.

The report's headline finding is stark. Global levels of democracy are identified as having fallen back to those last seen in the late 1970s, with nearly three-quarters of the world's population living under autocratic rule at the end of 2025. Nearly a quarter of the world's nations are going through democratic backsliding, or autocratization, in 2025, and six out of the ten new autocratizing countries identified in the 2026 Democracy Report are in Europe and North America. What makes this edition particularly significant is that democratic erosion is no longer confined to fragile or transitional states. This trend is no longer confined to fragile or transitional regimes but increasingly affects established democracies. Freedom of expression, a core aspect of democracy, shows the most drastic global decline and is the most common target among autocratizing leaders over the past 25 years. The report also identifies deterioration in checks and balances, rule of law, and the integrity of elections across a growing number of countries.

V-Dem's framework is distinctive among democracy indices in that it explicitly measures deliberative and participatory dimensions of democracy alongside electoral and liberal ones — treating the quality of public reasoning and inclusive civic participation as core components of democratic health, not afterthoughts. That framework makes this report particularly relevant to NCDD's network. The conditions the report describes — declining institutional trust, shrinking civic space, erosion of freedom of expression, and weakening checks on concentrated power — are precisely the conditions in which dialogue and deliberation practice becomes most necessary and most difficult. The 2026 Democracy Report characterises the current moment as a "great reversal" — a period in which decades of democratic progress are being undone, with significant implications for global governance, development cooperation, and international norms. For practitioners committed to democratic renewal, understanding the landscape in which that work unfolds is essential. Download the full report at https://www.v-dem.net/documents/75/V-Dem_Institute_Democracy_Report_2026_lowres.pdf. SweDev

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