The health of democracy around the world has been in decline for a few years now, but new research from the University of Rochester’s Bright Line Watch shows no sign of progress.  The latest results from the ongoing project show a continued decline in the quality of US democracy.

The survey began life in 2017, and scores up until 2019 were around the high 60s out of 100, albeit with a decline visible from the period before the 2018 midtern elections, which were reversed by March 2019.  The three surveys since then have, however, shown successive declines, such that a new low of 61 was recorded in the latest survey.

“It is concerning that there has been so much erosion across the board on so many principles,” the researchers say. “We have been seeing growing gaps for a while between how important a principle is and how it is performing, particularly in areas related to institutional limits on the government and accountability. But the latest survey showed us just how much ground has been lost since March.”

COVID leadership

In this latest survey, the researchers were particularly keen to understand how democracy had fared during COVID-19.  The 776 responding experts thought that democracy was continuing on its downward trajectory, with particular falls in areas such as protection from political violence, toleration of peaceful protest, and free speech.

Looking longer term, there have been noticeable declines in areas such as limits on government power and accountability for its misuse since the survey began in 2017.  The respondents also expressed concerns about the freedom of the upcoming presidential election from interference.

Of the 28 democratic principles the experts were quizzed on, they thought the US was doing better in areas such as rights and freedoms, but much less well in areas associated with civility and behavior.

“The most alarming findings, though not particularly surprising, are the steep declines in government protection for peaceful protest and the prevention of political violence,” the researchers explain. “This is really a new and quite worrisome trend, and, of course, our polling for this survey took place even before the events in Kenosha.”

When placed in a longer-term context, the experts’ ratings of US democratic performance have fallen the furthest since Bright Line Watch’s inception in 2017 for the following five items:

• Government protects individuals’ right to engage in peaceful protest;
• Executive authority cannot be expanded beyond constitutional limits;
• The legislature is able to effectively limit executive power;
• The judiciary is able to effectively limit executive power;
• Government agencies are not used to monitor, attack, or punish political opponents.