Alarmist report warns of world sliding from shining liberalism into rising autocracy (and never simply due to Putin!)

Greater than half the world is autocratic now, claims an alarming new report concerning the state of liberal democracy, touting a ‘state-of-the-art’ methodology. A more in-depth look suggests it’s pushing a political narrative as an alternative.

Introduced Friday afternoon, and almost misplaced within the deluge of stories concerning the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, the report by the V-Dem institute claims that 92 international locations – accounting for 54 % of the world’s inhabitants – now qualify as “autocracies.”

@vdeminstitute #dataset & #DemocracyReport are out! It exhibits that #autocratization accelerates within the #world: #autocracies are actually within the majority: masking 92 international locations & 54% of the world inhabitants.
Dataset: https://t.co/s70ptMyNrX
Democracy Report: https://t.co/lWuf8dqw9Y pic.twitter.com/WKt1sWxVAN

— V-Dem Institute (@vdeminstitute) March 20, 2020

How did the Gothenburg, Sweden-based institute come to this surprising conclusion? They are saying it’s by utilizing information to calculate the Liberal Democracy Index (LDI), which “combines measures of the standard of elections, suffrage, freedom of expression and the media, freedom of affiliation and civil society, checks on the manager, and the rule of regulation.”

Primarily based on these requirements, the US – “former vanguard of liberal democracy – has misplaced its manner,” whereas Hungary has turn into the “EU’s first ever authoritarian regime member state.” In the meantime, Libya has “considerably superior” on the LDI since 2009. That’s in accordance with the map on web page 10 of the 40-page media file launched Friday.

Besides Libya was plunged into chaos by NATO’s 2011 regime-change intervention that led to chaos, civil battle, warlords and open-air slave markets. Technically it’s now not dominated by an autocrat, however how is that democracy, for Heaven’s sake?

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That’s not the primary questionable evaluation by the Swedish institute. One would possibly quibble with its characterization of final yr’s mass protests in Hong Kong as “pro-democracy,” however making use of the identical label to Bolivia?

As a reminder, the riots that broke out in La Paz final November had been based mostly on opposition claims of electoral fraud by the Group of American States (OAS) – which had been later proven to be totally false. By that time, nonetheless, it was too late: the federal government had been overthrown and the elected president exiled, changed by unelected US-backed opposition, color-revolution fashion.

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All of this confirms the impression one would possibly get from the very first line of the report, which (mis)quotes Russian President Vladimir Putin’s well-known line about liberalism changing into “out of date.” Putin was talking about liberal dogma within the West that was out of contact with the wants of the individuals – and subsequently un-democratic. To the V-Dem institute, apparently, that dogma is what democracy is all about.

In line with them, political liberalism is “based upon Enlightenment rules of rights, purpose and tolerance” which have led the world to “open societies based mostly on benefit and freedom.”

It have to be a whole coincidence that one among their funders is George Soros’s Open Society Basis. V-Dem claims their donations quantity to at least one % of their whole, however would Soros ever give one pink cent to anybody who disagrees together with his agenda?

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The political and monetary allegiance to Soros additionally explains the obsession with Hungary, the place PM VIktor Orban cracked down on the well-known Hungarian-born globalist’s community of NGOs, together with the Central European College – whose relocation to Austria is cited by V-Dem as an appalling crackdown on educational freedom (p.20), together with “state managed media” not even being allowed to report on Swedish local weather alarmist activist Greta Thunberg (p.16).

On the subject of the US, V-Dem claims that the nation slid in the direction of autocracy by 15 proportion factors on the LDI, between Barack Obama’s election in 2008 and 2019, three years into President Donald Trump’s first time period (p.15). The report by no means actually says why, although it makes noises about assaults on the press – lengthy a criticism of the US mainstream media, who stand nearly monolithic in opposition to Trump.

But the Swedish scientists do convey up “poisonous polarization” as a phenomenon to look at, proper on web page 21:

As soon as political elites and their followers now not consider that political opponents are official and deserve equal respect, or are even acceptable as household and buddies, they turn into much less more likely to adhere to democratic guidelines within the battle for energy.

Does this describe Trump and his supporters, or does it match extra his opponents among the many political institution, the mainstream media, the “deep state” and their “Resistance” footsoldiers? The US is certainly displaying these “authoritarian” tendencies, however they don’t seem to be pushed by the federal government – however by its critics, who justify their each transfer as defending “our democracy.”

Therein lies the absurdity of the V-Dem report, which takes a decision-making technique and elevates it into a faith, then calls out “heretics” and unbelievers – proving Putin’s level.

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