Before Donald Trump’s second presidency, he claimed that American democracy would collapse, and a year later stated that the U.S. is no longer a democracy. Now, Staffan I Lindberg, professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg, has released a new report suggesting that democracy in the West is in decline and that the situation in the U.S. is unprecedented.

The research institute Varieties of Democracy, V-Dem, was founded by Staffan I Lindberg in 2014 and serves as a database aimed at conceptualizing and measuring democracy. Democracy is defined using seven key principles. The project’s main office is based at the Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg.

When the latest survey is now presented, it claims that nearly a quarter of the world’s countries experienced democratic backsliding during the past year. At the same time, ten new autocratizing countries were identified, six of which are in Europe and North America. Among these are countries such as Italy, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. The report also claims that media and journalists worldwide are increasingly under threat.

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– The fact that many populous and economically powerful countries are moving towards autocracy is worrying. Several of these nations have the economic and political clout to reshape international organizations, norms, and trade, and thereby practically reshape the :censored:6:cdd6bbaa89: order. I think we are already seeing the effects of this, says Professor Staffan I Lindberg, who led the research team behind the report.

According to the report, three clear patterns are seen in the ongoing trend of democratic decline:

Democratic backsliding in certain traditionally stable and well-established democracies

Significant setbacks and often democratic breakdowns in countries that democratized at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century

A deepening of autocracy in states that are already autocratic

Lindberg 2020:

Freedom of Speech

Another aspect that is said to have been further curtailed is freedom of speech, which is described as the most common target for autocratizing leaders to attack over the past 25 years.

– The second most common target is the liberal aspects of democracy, such as the rule of law and the institutional checks and balances in place to prevent abuse of power. For example, the principles of the rule of law have been weakened in 22 countries, says Staffan I Lindberg.

Within a year, the U.S.’s score in V-Dem’s Liberal Democracy Index has dropped by 24 percent, and Donald Trump’s second term is described as a rapidly executed concentration of power in the presidential office.

– The U.S. administration has undermined the institutional checks and balances, politicized the civil service and regulatory agencies. It has also put pressure on the judiciary while attacking the media, academia, civil liberties, and critics of the administration, says Staffan I Lindberg.

The report also points out 18 countries allegedly undergoing democratization, among them Brazil and Poland.

The Swedish public agrees

A new survey shows that Staffan I Lindberg has the majority of the Swedish public on his side regarding his views on Trump and the U.S. 71 percent of respondents in Indikator Opinion’s poll fully or partly agree with the statement “The U.S. is no longer a democracy.”

– It is a striking, though not surprising, figure. Historically, the U.S. was seen as a model democracy. Today, that is far from a given for Swedish voters. A major contributing factor is probably that Donald Trump is deeply unpopular among Swedish voters and has, in many ways, become a symbol for the U.S. in the eyes of Swedish voters, says Per Oleskog Trygvason, head of opinion at Indikator Opinion, to public television.

Among right-wing voters, 52 percent agree, and on the left side, 86 percent do. Women are also more likely than men to see the U.S. as less democratic.

READ ALSO: Swedish professor: U.S. no longer a democracy