Will the World Grow More Authoritarian in 2014?
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/01/will-the-world-grow-more-authoritarian-in-2014/282840/
A woman walks along Mohamed Mahmoud street near Tahrir Square in Cairo, in September 2012. The Arabic words read, "Bread, Freedom, Social justice and Glory to the Martyrs." (Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Judging by 2014's crowded election calendar, this will be a landmark year for democracy. The Economist estimates that an unprecedented 40 percent of the worlds population will have a chance to vote in national polls in 2014. We'll see races in populous countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, the United States, and, most notably, India, where 700 million people are expected to cast ballots in what Fareed Zakaria has called the largest democratic process in human history.
But heres the catch: The biggest year for democracy ever, as The Economist is billing it, follows a year that in many ways was characterized by the ascent of authoritarianism. In Syria, Bashar al-Assad, with the help of Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah, gained the upper hand in the countrys devastating civil war. In Egypt, the crucible of the Arab Spring, the Egyptian military overthrew the democratically elected Mohammed Morsi and launched a heavy-handed crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and other pockets of opposition. In Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan silenced political opponents and stifled freedom of expressionat least, that is, until a corruption scandal and plans to redevelop a park sparked a backlash against his increasingly authoritarian governing style.
The phenomenon extended beyond the Middle East. Russian President Vladimir Putin consolidated his control at home and abroad, playing an essential role in Syrian diplomacy, purchasing Ukraines loyalty for $15 billion, and detaining and releasing adversaries on a whim. In China, Xi Jinping emerged as the countrys most powerful leader in decades. Freedom House reported a worldwide decline in Internet freedom, noting, amid Edward Snowdens revelations about U.S. spying, that an uptick in surveillance was the years most significant trend. On several occasionsRussia granting asylum to Snowden, China establishing an Air Defense Identification Zone in the East China Seaauthoritarian governments deliberately taunted their democratic rivals
and got away with it.
These trends may have accelerated in 2013, but theyve been apparent for some time now. In its 2013 Freedom in the World report, Freedom House noted that more countries registered declines in freedom than gains in 2012for the seventh year in a row (this despite the fact that the number of electoral democracies in the world increased slightly in 2012). Two years earlier, the organization asserted that freedoms forward march had actually peaked at the turn of the 21st century.