2026 Midterms a "Critical Test" for US Democracy as Ranking Plummets
Democracy in the United States is declining faster than in any other modern democracy, according to a major new global report warning that democratic norms are weakening across many parts of the Western world. The findings come in the 2026 Democracy Report by the V‑Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg, which says that nearly a quarter of the world's countries have become less democratic.
Among them are several powerful nations—including the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy. “The 2026 American midterm elections will be a critical test for the quality of elections, and democracy, in the United States. If election indicators also decline, the U.S.
will fall even further,” said report author professor Staffan Lindberg in a statement. The report reveals that six of the ten countries newly identified as becoming less democratic are in Europe and North America—regions long seen as strongholds of democracy. Lindberg, who led the research team, said this shift is particularly worrying because many of these countries have significant global influence.
“The fact that many populous and economically powerful countries are becoming less democratic is especially worrying,” Lindberg said.
“Several of these countries have the economic and political weight to reshape international organizations, norms and trade, effectively reshaping the global order.” The report was based on V‑Dem’s global democracy dataset, which covers 202 countries from 1789 to 2025, and involves more than 4,200 experts and tracks hundreds of different measures related to democratic governance.
According to the report, democratic decline is happening in three main ways. First, democracy is weakening in countries long seen as stable, including the U.S. Next, some countries that successfully became democracies in recent decades are now reversing course.
Finally, countries that were already authoritarian are becoming even more so. Across all three patterns, the report finds that freedom of expression—including press freedom and the right to dissent—has declined more sharply than any other democratic principle worldwide.
According to report, attacks on free expression have been the most common tactic used by leaders concentrating power over the past 25 years. Other core democratic protections are also weakening. The study finds that rule of law and checks on government power are deteriorating in many countries, including the United States.
“These liberal aspects of democracy, like rule of law, and checks and balances that prevent the abuse of powers, are deteriorating in a worrying number of countries,” Lindberg said, noting that rule of law has declined in 22 countries. The report reflects previous findings.
In 2025, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance released its annual report on the global state of democracy, reporting a decrease in key rankings linked to democracy in much of the world, including the United States, U.K. and China.
The report singles out the United States for the speed and scale of its democratic decline. According to V‑Dem’s data, the U.S. Liberal Democracy Index score fell by 24 percent in just one year, while its global ranking dropped from 20th to 51st place out of 179 countries.
The sharpest decline occurred during President Donald Trump’s second term, which the report describes as a period marked by a rapid concentration of power in the presidency. “The current U.S.
administration has been undercutting institutionalized checks and balances, politicizing civil service and oversight bodies, and intimidating the judiciary,” Lindberg said, alongside attacks on the press, academia, civil liberties and dissenting voices. Do you have a science story to share with Newsweek?
Do you have a question about democracy? Let us know via [email protected] . International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. (2025). The global state of democracy 2025: Democracy on the move . Interna…