For the average global citizen, the level of democracy today has regressed to that of 1978. This means that all the democratic gains of the so-called ‘third wave of democratization’—which began with Portugal’s Carnation Revolution in 1974—have either vanished or been significantly eroded.

This is the conclusion reached by the ‘Varieties of Democracy’ (V-Dem) Institute, based at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Their findings rely on a detailed, multidimensional dataset compiled annually that reflects the complexity of the concept of democracy—a form of governance that extends beyond the mere existence of elections. They identify five fundamental democratic principles: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian.

In its 2026 report, the Institute identifies three patterns: democratic decline in some historically stable democracies; significant setbacks—and often even the collapse of democracy—in countries that had successfully democratized during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries; and the strengthening of autocracy in states that were already autocratic.

The V-Dem Institute is not alone in reaching these conclusions. Yet, while mainstream media and political circles remain fixated on the formal aspects of elections—and whether or not they are legitimate—‘alternative’ spheres have for some time been seeking more ‘participatory’, ‘deliberative’, and ‘egalitarian’ forms of democracy and sustainable transformation. Various scholars and activists—such as Saul Alinsky, Paul Almeida, Lydia Ashcombe, Deepak Bhargava, Richard Cloward, Marshall Ganz, Frances Fox Piven, and Stephanie Luce—have studied community organizing and grassroots social movements, analyzing the factors contributing to their success or failure, as well as the relative strength of local versus national movements.

A recent and interesting addition to this field is “Remaking Democracy: How........

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