Democracy’s Next Decade

Strengthening democracy and its resiliency in the face of burgeoning global challenges, including rising autocracies, endemic corruption, and mounting human rights abuses, has become a rallying cry for leading democracies, including the United States, European Union, and transatlantic and international partners. The effort to advance democratic values and human rights at home and internationally requires renewed and sustained focus, greater cooperation and coordination, additional resources, and a willingness to address trends, including public dissatisfaction with poor governance, exacerbated during the pandemic. What steps need to be taken by governments, citizens, and other actors to reverse backsliding, renew hope, fix democracy, and win the future? Are liberal democracies more resilient and stronger than we give them credit for, and are the green shoots of democracy emerging globally and generationally, on the frontlines fighting illiberalism and kleptocracy, harbingers of the next great wave of democracy?