Collective Defense of Democracy in Anti-Democratic Times

By Dan Restrepo, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress It is a perilous and curious time for democracy in the Americas. According to The Economist’s Intelligence Unit’s 2018 Democracy Index, the number of authoritarian regimes in the Western Hemisphere (Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela) last year equaled the number of “full democracies” (Canada, Costa Rica, and Uruguay). That Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela are following a common authoritarian playbook is an obvious cause for concern. But so too is democratic deterioration elsewhere in the region. Democracy, for example, is under strain—to differing degrees and in markedly different ways—in the hemisphere’s largest democracies, […]