Freedom in the World and Democracy in America
Liberal democracy appears to be battered and on the ropes at home and abroad. We all know the recent blows it has endured in the U.S., so I won’t recount them here. Russia’s attack on Ukraine underscores the dangers facing democracy abroad. Especially coming as it did on the heels of a new pact announced by Russia and China in which Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping hail an emergent trend “toward a redistribution of power in the world.” Their agreement goes on to state with Orwellian flourishes that the revanchist countries they dominate as dictators are in fact bona fide democracies. It also declares that “Friendship between the two States has no limits. There are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation.”
In an illuminating coincidence, last week Freedom House released its annual report on the state of democracy worldwide, something it has done every year since 1973. The report is based on a recurring and systematic survey of the extent to which the world’s 210 countries are ensuring their citizens and subjects enjoy (or not) a core set of political rights and civil liberties derived from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The opening paragraphs of “Freedom in the World 2022: The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule,” written by Sarah Repucci and Amy Slipowitz, put the grim story in a nutshell:
“Global freedom faces a dire threat. Around the world, the enemies of liberal democracy—a form of self-government in which human rights are recognized and every individual is entitled to equal treatment under law—are accelerating their attacks. Authoritarian regimes have become more effective at co-opting or circumventing the norms and institutions meant to support basic liberties, and at providing aid to others who wish to do the same. In countries with long-established democracies, internal forces have exploited the shortcomings in their systems, distorting national politics to promote hatred, violence, and unbridled power. Those countries that have struggled in the space between democracy and authoritarianism, meanwhile, are increasingly tilting toward the latter. The global order is nearing a tipping point, and if democracy’s defenders do not work together to help guarantee freedom for all people, the authoritarian model will prevail.
The present threat to democracy is the product of 16 consecutive years of decline in global freedom. A total of 60 countries suffered declines over the past year, while only 25 improved. As of today, some 38 percent of the global population live in Not Free countries, the highest proportion since 1997. Only about 20 percent live in Free countries.”
It is painful to read but hard to argue with this assessment. One can’t help but connect the dots between the ongoing decline in global freedom and the 11-point decrease in the U.S.’s rankings on Freedom House’s 100-point scale since 2010, dropping us from the upper echelons to the middle of the pack of free countries. We were once peers of Germany and the United Kingdom; now we find ourselves cheek by jowl with Panama, Romania, and South Korea.
And yet, in the wake of Russia’s brazen assault on Ukraine and the democratic world’s response to it, led by the U.S., I wonder if we are at a turning point. Could we eventually look back on these events as the moment when we began to recover from what Larry Diamond has termed the Global Democratic Recession? To be sure, Russia may yet succeed in bludgeoning Ukraine into submission. Defense experts indicate that is still the more likely outcome. But whatever happens, the Ukrainian crisis appears to have awakened a new determination among the people and countries committed to democratic ideals and institutions.
First and most inspiring among the ranks of the resolute are the brave Ukrainians led by Volodymyr Zelensky. Godspeed to them in their life and death struggle for freedoms many of us have come to take for granted. We should also be moved by the tens of thousands of Russian citizens protesting Putin’s war (and the thousands arrested for doing so). That too takes courage in a regime with a track record of killing and imprisoning its domestic opposition with impunity.
Citizens and governments of liberal democracies around the globe have rallied to the cause of Ukraine and against Putin’s revanchism. 100,000+ crowds have turned out awash in blue and yellow from Madrid to Berlin to stand with Ukrainians. European states and the European Union have taken unprecedented steps to welcome refugees, support Ukraine with resources and armaments, and sanction and isolate Putin and his oligarchs. Corporations and civil society groups around the world are following suit. Sweden and Finland are newly interested in NATO. Germany has augmented its defense posture and commitments in ways that must surely confound the expectations of Russia and China (not to mention its American critics). Japan, Australia, South Korea, and other democracies are doing their part farther afield. As Kori Schake notes, “Endeavoring to destroy the liberal international order, [Putin] has been the architect of its revitalization.”
The Biden Administration, having worked adeptly to marshal and align NATO and the broader coalition before the invasion, is now running hard to keep pace with the partners we have enlisted. Domestically the U.S. reaction has been strongly pro-Ukrainian and anti-Russian, except for various fringe and oddball voices (and when it comes to Putin and Russia, Donald Trump remains oddball #1). Quinnipiac has just released a poll that found 81 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Putin and 86 percent believe Russia is not justified in its efforts to “reclaim” Ukraine. There is a strong bipartisan consensus among officeholders within our governing institutions that the U.S. needs to move quickly to support Ukraine and oppose Russia. The debate centers on the scope and speed of these actions. A decade ago, Mitt Romney was jeered by President Obama and the mainstream media when he warned of the singular threat Putin’s Russia posed to our system of government. Now we all see how prescient he was.
Similarly, there is a bipartisan consensus in Washington on the need to counter China’s efforts to use its economic and military power to subordinate its democratic rivals near and far. An intriguing question arises as China and Russia establish closer ties and spur “a redistribution of power in the world” that benefits them. Could two avowed enemies working in concert to displace America’s values, alliances, and the rules-based system in which they prosper have the unintended consequence of repairing our tattered social cohesion?
War and international conflict are crude but effective forges of discipline and unity. We often look back on mid-Twentieth Century America as a golden era of civic comity. We overlook the extent to which the crucible of World War II and then the Cold War, fought against enemies pursuing values and ways of life conflicting sharply with our own, brought us – “pushed” may be the better verb – closer together. The pressure of these global struggles helped make our failures to live up to our ideals, e.g., with racial segregation, ultimately unbearable for our society to maintain. Moreover, the external existential threats worked to constrain the lengths political leaders and parties felt at liberty to go in attacking one another.
Confronting two increasingly allied authoritarian systems may once again force us to burnish how we practice democracy and chasten our internal rivalries. The ups and downs of the past several years have made it clear that the world’s liberal democracies will need American leadership to prevail in this contest. The U.S. will not be able to wear the mantle if our democracy continues to be bedeviled by take-no-prisoners partisanship or by leaders who scoff at rather than uphold their responsibility to foster a spirit of forbearance and reflective patriotism among their followers. The health of freedom in the world and democracy in America are thus interdependent; they will either rise or keep falling together.
