A rise in populism and eroding trust in established democratic parties are likely to have contributed to halting the downward trend of autocracies since the beginning of the current century. Populism is commonly defined as a certain understanding of politics that is characterized by the idea of a "true people" on the one hand and "corrupt elites" on the other.
When looking at the dominant forms of government in the past century, countries with autocratic regimes were in the majority for the longest time. A downward trend in autocracies only began after the end of the Second World War, accelerated by the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Since then, the two variants of government have been in a neck-and-neck race and were almost equally split in 2022.
A rise in populism and eroding trust in established democratic parties are likely to have contributed to halting the downward trend of autocracies since the beginning of the current century. Populism is commonly defined as a certain understanding of politics that is characterized by the idea of a "true people" on the one hand and "corrupt elites" on the other.
„World in Data“, from which the source material for this week’s Racing Bars was gathered, distinguishes between four different forms of regime. The first two are closed autocracies and electoral autocracies, summarized in the animation as "autocracies", which differ in one key aspect. In closed autocracies like Saudi Arabia and North Korea, there are no significant parliamentary or presidential elections. In electoral autocracies, elections are held but potentially manipulated and obstructed by the incumbent government. This can take the form of suppressing the opposition and the press. Egypt, Singapore and Hungary are among the countries counted as electoral autocracies.
Democracies can be split in two sub types as well. In liberal democracies, free and fair elections are held, while the separation of powers and rule of law principles guarantee citizens extensive freedoms. In addition to Germany, this also includes countries such as Australia, South Korea and the Seychelles. This form of government has come under particular pressure in recent years, while the number of electoral democracies and closed autocracies has increased.
In electoral democracies, governments are also elected, but they only partially fulfill other criteria. For example, there may be a lack of effective separation of powers, supervisory bodies or civil liberties. Examples of this are Poland, Mexico and Senegal.