DEMOCRACY REPORT 2025 | 25 Years of Autocratization – Democracy Trumped?

AS WE ARE finishing up this year’s Democracy Report, recently inaugurated President Trump is voting against NATO allies in the UN joining with autocracies like North Korea, Russia, and Sudan. Military support to Ukraine was just cut off, and the words coming out of the Trump administration echo Kremlin rhetoric. European leaders are scrambling to mount a sufficient response. The world is going through another convulsion.

THE 2025 REPORT unfortunately finds no signs of the third wave of autocratization cresting or even slowing down. No matter how we slice the data and look at it from different perspectives using different metrics, the overall trend of worsening, stands. Looking towards the future, there are at least seven more countries on the “Watchlist” to become autocratizers, including Cyprus, Slovakia, and Slovenia in Europe. Equally if not more worrying, it seems clear that the actions the Trump administration is taking domestically amount to an ongoing attempt steering towards democratic breakdown. As the group of authors, we hope that you will find the Democracy Report 2025 useful.

IN A MONTH or so, both Spanish and Portuguese editions will be released, thanks to Professor David Altman, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the Regional Center for Latin America, and Professor Tiago Fernandes, University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE) and the Regional Center for Southern Europe.