on Mar 18, 2026 02:35 am
Martin Gelin, Repporter Swedish Newspaper Dagens Nyheter – The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at Gothenburg University is historically the most accurate geopolitical assessor in the world. I have been telling you for five years now that democracy is declining around the world (see SR archive) and that the United States is one of the countries in which that is happening. One of the worst. The V-Dem Institute now confirms my assessment. I have also told you that this is happening because of the growing precognitive awareness of the coming 2040 catastrophe, which has created an almost universal, if unacknowledged anxiety and fear. (See the SR website for two papers I have published about this future.) I must confess, however, that I did not foresee how quickly American democracy would end, or how many Americans would think that was okay.
A portrait of US president Donald Trump is seen through the snow in Washington, DC, 2 March 2026.
Credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP / Getty
Sweden’s V-Dem Institute warns that the US is no longer a liberal democracy. And autocracy is creeping across Europe too.
The US is no longer a democracy. One of the most credible global sources on the health of democratic nations now says this outright. The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at Gothenburg University reaches the alarming conclusion in its annual report, that the US is hurtling towards autocracy at a faster rate than Hungary and Turkey.
“Our data on the USA goes back to 1789. What we’re seeing now is the most severe magnitude of democratic backsliding ever in the country,” says Staffan Lindberg, founder of the institute.
Since 2012, Lindberg has led his small group of researchers in Sweden to become the world’s leading source for analysis of the health of global democracy. In their latest report, published on Tuesday, they conclude that the US, for the first time in more than […]