The underlying idea of democracy – that governments are accountable to the governed – is still valued in large parts of the world. How else is one to explain the fact that more than half the world’s population will be voting this year?

Yet, the world has also been in what Stanford University’s Larry Diamond calls a “democratic recession” for almost two decades. The power of autocratic China has risen. Vladimir Putin has throttled democracy in Russia. Authoritarianism is triumphing in many countries.

Financial Times