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.
Let’s be honest, the US was no shining beacon of democracy even before Trump. The system was rotten and everyone knew it. However, those with the power to change it have no incentive to do so. It was basically held up because the poeple in charge had some common decency. At that point it’s just a matter of time before someone came along that didn’t have this basic decency.
I think the people of the UK should take a long, hard look at how the situation has evolved in the US and decide if they want to change their system to avoid having only two parties dominate the political climate. Ironically, being a monarchy means they are probably more resistant to going down the same route, but I suspect the parties are going to get more radical as time goes on and the royals aren’t terribly popular these days.
(Opinion to be taken with a pinch of salt. I am no expert in these things and don’t live in either country; We’ve got our own radicalization and issues with our own democracy.)
the US was no shining beacon of democracy even before Trump
he didnt create that corrupt system, hes just taking advantage of it…
actually he and the other pedo billionaires did help to create the corrupt system who am I kidding?
WWII changed everything about the USA. Everywhere else in the world, manufacturing was bombed to oblivion, the populace unable to rebuild without a coordinated effort from governments and NGOs.
The US became a hub of manufacturing. We exported our culture, and our products, all over the world. Our currency and our language became the standard in business.
Everything since then has been a slow walk backwards, so that the ultrawealthy could exert more control and line their pockets. A return to the “real” American values of exploitation.
The US became a hub of manufacturing. We exported our culture, and our products, all over the world.
only because the rest of the world was bombed to shit. As soon as they rebuilt, they did everything better.
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)
It’s not just younger ones. I talk to a large group of boomers and they are all in the same boat of “everything is fine, we’ll just vote the next election. We’ve had presidents like this before.”
We’ve had presidents like this before.”
On that they are seriously mistaken, of course there have been bad presidents like Bush, but Trump is a whole new class of bad.
I hope they are right, and that all this can be solved by a simple election, but I’m not betting on it.Yeah I really don’t think so. The damage is already done to democracy. I can believe we used to have a shared common decency. But it’s been rotting for a while now.
Plus boomers aren’t known for actually fixing problems. The things I bring up to them, their responses are always like “well we will figure it out sometime” as they continue doing what they want. So uhhh… I don’t have a lot of confidence.
Isn’t it about time the next generation begins to take responsibility.
The boomers I know are pissed, and know what is going on, and always have. Most of them anyway.
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.
Hippies did fuck all and then ended up voting for Reagan.
The pedofile class doesn’t want democracy
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.
not a few on the left,
Nah, was a lot actually. I know a lot of people that were really upset after the election and after the first few months. Then it stopped being a problem. “You’re overreacting.” “Don’t think about it.” “We’ll be fine next election.”
We would have been if we could get rid of the controlled opposition. But you all still trust the establishment democrats somehow.
A lot of the predictions and fears did not come true during Trump‘s first presidency.
Because the fascists didn’t think they would win in 2016 and were unprepared.
In 2025 they had a planNot for lack of trying on the administration’s part.
That was because the guard rails were still in place.
He’s making moves like he’s expecting to be around another 50 years when he probably has 10 at the most. I’m way more afraid of who he might be paving the way for.
No way he has 10 years in him. Motherfucker is mentally gone as is. Weekend at Bernie’s.
Those red neck scars are an attempt to relieve his dementia with a blood flow stent.
The DNC made damn sure we wouldn’t have one minute at Bernie’s let alone an entire weekend.
He could die tomorrow. Pandora’s Box is already open.
For the remainder of our lives we will see copycat politicians who strip more and more of our rights away when they gain power because they all watched and saw and know they can do what Trump did and more without suffering repercussions.
America put up a big sign letting them all know we are too weak to make them pay. They will take advantage. Why wouldn’t they?
It went from being four weapon manufacturing companies pretending to be a democracy to four weapon manufacturing companies pretending to be a dictatorship.
Weird how everyone who was told they were overreacting are not being told that anymore.
always has been
In 1963 they murdered the democratically elected president in front of the whole world. Do you really think we’ve been a democracy since then?
No one will grow a ball and stop him, so it’s already too late. If you’re an American, your life will never be the same.
Only thing that can stop him is his incompetence.
He’s on his way out. And despite the inevitability of the party fixing elections with the controlled opposition we have that these motherfuckers still trust somehow, in time, a true leader will emerge and lay waste to the oligarchy, it’s as certain as spring finally arriving.
Bad news, guys
The sooner everyone recognizes this, the better
Us was always an electoral autocracy, you can vote an autocrat, it was never a democratic nation. Only a country which follow effective proportional representation system of democracy can be claimed as a democracy
Wait… did they think we were a liberal democracy under Biden, Obama, Bush, Bush Jr., Clinton, Reagan?
Goofballs
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.
