Donald Trump’s authoritarian drift in his second term places the country on a par with Hungary or Turkey, according to a ranking by Sweden’s V-Dem Institute
Democratic backsliding is advancing in the developed world. The annual report from Sweden’s V-Dem Institute leaves no room for doubt: almost a quarter of the world experienced democratic backsliding, or a shift towards autocratization, in 2025, and six of the 10 newly regressive countries identified in the research are located in Europe and North America, including G-7 powers such as Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
But the most unsettling conclusion reached by the Swedish institute is that the United States — once a proud beacon of the more or less free world — is no longer a liberal democracy and is now on a par with countries like Hungary or Turkey, thanks to President Donald Trump. Autocracy is also spreading throughout Europe, but its reach extends far beyond the Old Continent: 41% of the world’s population (3.4 billion people) now live in countries where democracy is eroding.
The institute, which belongs to the University of Gothenburg and uses 48 metrics in its evaluation, is one of the most reliable sources when it comes to rating the state of governments around the world, and the conclusion of its 2026 study confirms the worst fears about the authoritarian drift of the U.S. under Trump’s leadership.
The Citizens get lazy under a Democracy, because they’re comfortable, but there are always those who want to everyone to do things their way, or else. Lazy Citizens let those people get their way too much, and it gets exploited, and the next thing you know, the Lazy Citizens have to do a lot more work to take control again, than if they had just been vigilant in the first place. It’s important to slap down the dipshits as soon as they get froggy.
many countrys and similar groups brake down solely due to corruption of the systems that got the country to where it was in the first place. many think about building the country but forget to set things in places to preserve the country their after. anti corruption laws need to be overbearing to deal with this upcreep imo.