The United States is no longer a liberal democracy, according to the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at Sweden's Gothenburg University. In its annual report, the institute warns that the US is moving towards autocracy at a faster rate than Hungary or Turkey, marking the most severe democratic backsliding in the country since records began in 1789.
Staffan Lindberg, founder of the institute, said that what President Donald Trump has achieved in one year took leaders like Hungary's Viktor Orbán four years and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ten years. The report states that US democracy has regressed to levels not seen since 1965, erasing all progress made since the introduction of universal suffrage.
Globally, democracy has receded to its lowest point since the mid-1970s, with a record 41% of the world's population—3.4 billion people—living in countries where democracy is deteriorating. The report identifies the US as leading this global turn away from democracy.
The V-Dem Institute uses 48 metrics to assess democratic health, including freedom of expression, election quality, and rule of law. The main factor behind the US decline is a rapid concentration of power in the presidency, marginalising Congress and undermining checks and balances. Civil rights have declined sharply, and freedom of expression is at its lowest since the 1940s.
Lindberg noted that in Trump's first year, he signed 225 executive orders while Congress passed only 49 new laws, many of which were minor. The Supreme Court has also largely abdicated its role, and Trump has circumvented its rulings. With over 600 ongoing judicial procedures against the administration, Lindberg concluded that Trump is 'aiming for dictatorship,' mirroring tactics used by Orbán and Erdoğan.
