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Opinion | Is democracy dying a slow death in and out of Trump’s America?
- Democratic ideals are in retreat around the world, and under attack in the US. Undemocratic countries like China are becoming economically stronger while Trump challenges the checks and balances that have kept US democracy intact
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A fortnight ago, markets were going great guns, with the S&P 500 hitting a record high, even as there was increasing evidence that global trade and many economies were slowing.
This week, the markets took a sharp turn as US President Donald Trump tweeted that he would escalate the tariff war with China. With North Korea again testing missiles, tensions with Iran rising and US politics becoming more divisive by the day, what is going on?
People like to have complexities explained simply. Harvard professor Dani Rodrik theorises that the world faces a trilemma of democracy, national sovereignty and globalisation: you can have two of the three, but not all three. Since Trump’s “America first” policy, globalisation has been in retreat.
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Is democracy in retreat, too? Freedom House has tracked political freedoms in countries around the world for decades, and by the count of the human rights organisation, electoral democracies increased from 76 in 1990 to 125 in 2015.
But according to its latest report, released in February, global democracy is declining for the 13th straight year. Between 2005 and 2018, the share of “not free” countries rose to 26 per cent, while that of “free” countries fell to 44 per cent.
It’s not all bad news. Ethiopia, Malaysia, Armenia and Angola showed improvements in 2018, though 13 of the “not free” countries – from Syria and North Korea to Saudi Arabia – also had the “worst of the worst” rating.
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