Global democracy seeks to bring democratic principles into the world’s governance systems. Rather than treating democracy as an idealized set of institutions that need to be induced beyond the state, this approach aims to pursue the fundamental values that democracy demands: inclusivity, equality, popular control, transparency, accountability and deliberation. These can be pursued in different institutional locations by various actors in an on-going process, and global politics will be more democratic the closer these values are to being fulfilled.
There are two prominent positions in this debate. One argues that all individuals who are subject to the rules of a regime deserve a say in writing those rules. The other argues that globalization is reshaping who deserves a voice in decision-making, and that formal international institutions should be a vehicle to give people a say in how their governments are run, even if those decisions are not directly related to their daily lives.
Regardless of which position one subscribes to, it is clear that there are substantial challenges to global democracy. Backsliding in democracies and deepening authoritarianism in non-democracies have weakened the world’s pressure for democratic norms, while repression has impeded citizens’ ability to express themselves at home and abroad.
In the face of these trends, some countries have shown resilience. This edition of the Global Democracy Index documents the way these states have managed to cope with the pandemic, including adapting their electoral processes and experimenting with alternative forms of voting. But the covid-19 pandemic also accelerated and magnified pre-existing political trends, and has conditioned people to accept a wide range of limitations on civil liberties – from the imposition of lockdowns and travel restrictions to the normalization of emergency powers and the extension of executive power.
