US added to list of ‘backsliding’ democracies for first time

Visible deterioration' in US civil liberties began in at least 2019, says international thinktank

The US has been added to an annual list of backsliding" democracies for the first time, the International IDEA thinktank has said, pointing to a visible deterioration" it said began in 2019.

Globally, more than one in four people live in a backsliding democracy, a proportion that rises to more than two in three with the addition of authoritarian or hybrid" regimes, according to the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.