It is easy to be depressed today about democracy’s prospects. Promising new democracies in Hungary, Poland, Turkey and elsewhere have slid toward authoritarianism, and longstanding democracies in the West are being rattled by populists who often show little regard for democratic rules and individual rights. A generation ago, the collapse of communism led pundits to celebrate the approaching triumph of liberal democracy; today many commentators are concerned that the democratic cause is in decline. When Freedom House, a nonprofit group that tracks the global state of democracy, released its annual report on Tuesday, it...

Source: Wall Street Journal February 08, 2019 16:41 UTC