Crisis of Democracy: origins and prospects

Abstract

The third wave of democratization in the late 2Oth century has been followed by the world-wide crisis of democracy. There are three main aspects of such crisis: (1) the perseverance of non-democratic regimes, including the rule of the communist parties in
China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam (2) the emergence of strong right-wing populist parties in several Western democracies, (3) the emergence of new authoritarian regimes in the majority of former Soviet republics and in several states of East-Central Europe, Asia and Africa. In 2023, the majority of states have been classified as non-democratic. Poland’s election of October 2023 indicate, however, that the trend toward new authoritarianism is reversible.

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