Freedom House’s Annual Report Shows the Dire State of Democracy Worldwide

(Joshua Kurlantzick – Council on Foreign Relations) The global monitor of rights and democracy, Freedom House, today released its annual report, Freedom in the World 2026. Freedom House has long noted that global freedom has been declining, warning in earlier reports that it had been falling for 15, 16, 17 years, etc. But this version of Freedom in the World was the starkest yet about the global collapse of democracy and the rising power and collaboration of autocratic states which are working together, no longer just in ad hoc ways, to undermine democracy around the world. The Freedom House report was, overall, appropriately depressing. It found: “Global freedom declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2025. A total of 54 countries experienced deterioration in their political rights and civil liberties during the year, while only 35 countries registered improvements.” It added that the United States was one of the countries rated “free” that experienced the biggest declines in freedom last year. The only three countries who became freer in 2025, according to the report, were tiny Fiji and Malawi, as well as Bolivia. – Freedom House’s Annual Report Shows the Dire State of Democracy Worldwide | Council on Foreign Relations