By Jesus Delgado Valery (latinoamerica21.com)
HAVANA TIMES – Following the inertia of recent years, the world continues to turn autocratic according to the main indexes that evaluate the state of democracy. 2022 was the sixth consecutive year of democratic regression, according to the report of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). In our region, the most pronounced setbacks are those of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, while there are no upward trends to celebrate. Meanwhile, according to the global alliance of civil society organizations dedicated to strengthening citizen action (CIVICUS), more countries are restricting and violating civic freedoms and almost a third of the world’s population lives in countries with closed civic spaces, rising from 26% in 2018 to 30% in 2023. Finally, the latest V-Dem study mentions that the planet today has more closed autocracies than liberal democracies and that the progress achieved during the last 35 years has been annulled. As a consequence, 72% of the world’s population currently lives under autocratic regimes.
In Latin America, the situation is no different. We have three consolidated autocratic regimes (Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua) and several in clear democratic regression (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Bolivia). Added to this is the generalized democratic disaffection of its inhabitants. According to the latest Latinobarómetro survey, only 48% of people support democracy in the region, a decrease of 15% points in the last 12 years. Meanwhile, the percentage of respondents who would not mind having a non-democratic government if it could solve problems rose from 44% in 2002 to 54% in 2022.
Democracy or state aptitude failure?
Different scholars, including Adam Przeworski in “The Crisis of Democracy” (2022), have warned about the accuracy of surveys measuring the acceptance of democracy. This is due to the great methodological difficulty in conducting them. If academics do not reach an agreement on the subject, much less can we expect the general public to reach a
