“Democracy is deteriorating across the world, with countries notably taking undemocratic and unnecessary actions to contain the coronavirus pandemic, an intergovernmental body said in its new report Monday. ‘Many democratic governments are backsliding,’ the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, or International IDEA, said” the AP reports.
“The 34-nation organization added that as of August 2021, 64% of countries have taken an action to curb the pandemic that it considers ‘disproportionate, unnecessary or illegal.’ The Swedish-based body added that the situation is also getting worse in countries that are not democratic. Autocratic regimes have become ‘even more brazen in their repression,’ free speech has been restricted and the rule of law has been weakened, it said. In its flagship report on the state of democracy, International IDEA said the number of backsliding democracies has doubled in the past decade, and mentioned in particular the United States, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. ‘This is the time for democracies to be bold, to innovate and revitalize themselves,’ International IDEA Secretary-General Kevin Casas-Zamora said in a statement.”