Muhammad Wali Jan
The world is currently going through what is considered to be the most decisive and uncertain period in the history of liberal democracy. The system that has been a symbol of human freedom, fundamental rights, fair elections and the rule of law for the past two centuries. Now entered a crisis whose severity can be gauged from the fact that according to global reports from 2024, approximately 72% of the world’s population now lives in political systems that are not democratic but authoritarian or semi-authoritarian. That is, three-quarters of all humanity has come under governance models that are considered the opposite of liberal democracy. These are figures that indicate not the decline of any political ideology but an intellectual setback at the global level.
In the past few years, authoritative research institutions, such as the V-Dem Institute and International IDEA, have repeatedly emphasized that the world is going through the worst wave of democratic decline. According to the latest reports of 2025, the number of countries worldwide where democratic standards have declined in one or more key areas has reached 94. In comparison, there are only 55 countries where improvements have been recorded in some area. This gap itself shows the depth of this crisis. Moreover, in 2009, the number of countries that can be called “liberal democracies” worldwide was historically the highest, but by 2022 their number had shrunk to just 32.
A major reason for this political decline is the rise of populism, which has caused the most damage to public trust in democratic institutions. Populist leaders have transformed public deprivation and despair into emotional slogans and described institutions, the media and the judiciary as “elite”, which has the result that democratic structures are weakened from within. Whether it’s the attack on Capitol Hill in the US, questions about the impartiality of institutions in India, or the growing influence of nationalist parties in Europe—they’re all manifestations of the same global trend.
The magnitude of the erosion of public trust in institutions can also be gauged from the data. According to global assessments, 71 countries experienced seven consecutive years of decline in democratic freedom between 2016 and 2023. And the decline was primarily seen in media freedom, judicial independence, and civil liberties—the cornerstones of liberal democracy. International IDEA’s 2025 report makes it clear that the biggest decline has come in the “rights category,” with freedom of expression and freedom of the press being the areas that have weakened the most.
This political crisis is also accompanied by an economic crisis, which is hitting the claims of liberal democracy the hardest. The wealth of the rich has multiplied, the middle class is shrinking, and youth unemployment has reached historic levels. This economic inequality undermines the system’s promise that a free economy and democracy can deliver progress and justice.
Social media has compounded this crisis. Misinformation, political propaganda, hate speech, and algorithmic polarization have deepened the ideological divide in societies. In the form of “echo chambers,” people now only see information that supports their own views, stifling democratic discourse and fostering extremism. According to global reports, press freedom has fallen to its lowest level in ten years, the strongest sign of this crisis.
The growing questioning of the electoral system in the world’s most powerful democracy, the new wave of nationalism in Europe, the weakening of civil liberties and minority rights in India, and the rise of military interventions in Africa and Latin America—all of these are part of a global pattern, not individual state problems. The basis of this pattern is data that is not just opinion but also numbers—and it is this evidence that proves that the crisis of liberal democracy is not an intellectual or moral crisis but a historical and structural change.
The world is indeed standing at a new political crossroads. If liberal democracy cannot incorporate new elements such as reform, economic justice, institutional transparency, media freedom, and controls on the negative effects of technology, then the system that was once considered a symbol of human dignity and collective prosperity will shrink further in the coming years and become a limited historical experiment. Global data and evidence confirm that this crisis is not temporary but structural—and the future of world politics depends on understanding this crisis and finding a solution to it.
