The Economist reports that, according to the US lobby group Freedom House, 'liberty and human rights [have] retreated globally for the fourth consecutive year', with freedom-related reversals in 40 countries, and authoritarian regimes more numerous and more confident. Once or twice on this blog I've discussed the idea of a League of Democracies. There's no formal league of non-democracies but they're starting to take advice from another. The Economist's diagnosis is that the rise of China is the main reason for the waning influence of democracy internationally; it cites 'the belief of [China's] would-be imitators that they too can create a dynamic economy without easing their grip on political power'.
The article goes on to look at the reasons in favour of democracy when all is said and done: reasons like development and stability; and the fact that 'all but two of the 30 least corrupt countries in the world are democracies' (surprise, surprise). One could also emphasize the fact, as I believe it to be, that by and large the populations of non-democratic countries would prefer to be governed democratically. Note also the maps for 2001 and 2009, showing the distribution of free countries across the globe. (Via.)
