It's not enough to push back against authoritarianism
By Jennifer Rubin
As Western democracies rise to the challenge of defending Ukraine, they are ironically allowing their own democracies to shrivel. Some are sliding further into authoritarianism; others are transitioning into mixed democratic-authoritarian models in which executive power swallows legislative bodies, erodes judicial independence, crushes a free media and squelches dissent.
That grim view comes from Freedom House’s new report, “Nations in Transit 2022,” which makes a powerful case that democracies are going in the wrong direction.
“For years now, authoritarians have been on the offensive, while liberal democratic practices have increasingly been discarded. In relations between states, conflict, coercion, and attacks on the legitimacy of key principles and institutions have proliferated at the expense of good-faith dialogue and the search for common interests” the report explains. “Domestically, demagogues and dictators run roughshod over the rule of law and the separation of powers.”
The report notes that there are plenty of out-and-out authoritarian regimes that are becoming more aggressive, such as Russia and Belarus.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/20/freedom-house-democracy-decline/
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