Overview
- The University of Gothenburg’s V-Dem researchers remove the United States from the liberal-democracy category in their 2025 assessment.
- They attribute the drop to power concentrated in the executive, governing by decree, circumvention of court rulings, and limits on civil liberties and media freedom.
- Despite the erosion of liberal safeguards, the report still rates U.S. electoral mechanics as intact.
- V-Dem describes the U.S. decline as unusually fast, noting the damage occurred within roughly one year of Trump’s second term.
- Hungary remains classified as an electoral autocracy since 2018, as the report also records a broader global slide with 92 autocracies, 87 democracies, and only about seven percent of people living in a liberal democracy.