For nearly a half century, Freedom House — the avowedly non-partisan democracy advocacy organization whose founders include Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Wilkie — has published an annual report on the state of freedom in the world. This year’s edition, titled “A Leaderless Struggle for Democracy,” is just out, and it is decidedly downbeat in its assessment of where worldwide freedom stands today.
“Democracy and pluralism are under assault,” writes the report’s author, Sarah Repucci. “The unchecked brutality of autocratic regimes and the ethical decay of democratic powers are combining to make the world increasingly hostile to fresh demands for better governance.”