Autocratization changing nature? Democracy report 2022

Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) produces the largest global dataset on democracy with over 30 million data points for 202 countries from 1789 to 2021. Involving over 3,700 scholars and other country experts, V-Dem measures hundreds of different attributes of democracy. V-Dem enables new ways to study the nature, causes, and consequences of democracy embracing its multiple meanings.

A WAR BEGAN IN EUROPE. This war is the doing of the same leader who triggered the third wave of autocratization1 when he began to derail democracy in Russia 20 years ago. The invasion seems like a definite confirmation of the dangers the world faces as a consequence of autocratization around the world. On the day we finalize this year’s Democracy Report, President Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an independent country led by an elected government. For years, scholars warned that the global wave of autocratization would lead to more wars, both inter-state and civil (see also box on the Case for Democracy at the end of this report). The Democracy Report 2022 also points to this shift in the nature of autocratization. Various pieces of evidence point to leaders becoming bolder and taking more drastic actions, leading to further autocratization.