V-Dem Institute: Greece in Continuous Institutional Decline – Authoritarian Shift Statistically Confirmed

Greece continues to experience a significant institutional decline, according to the latest Liberal Democracy Index released by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg, one of the most respected democracy measurement tools worldwide.

The report indicates that while Greece remains a democracy,

The country now ranks 49th globally among 179 nations, with the report warning that Greece is in continuous democratic backsliding. Among the most concerning issues are the lack of robust checks on executive power by the parliament and judiciary, as well as serious deficiencies in protecting individual rights and ensuring equality before the law. The report explicitly states that Greece is among the countries where the authoritarian shift is statistically confirmed, pointing to a steep decline in democratic indicators.

The findings highlight that this institutional deterioration has accelerated in recent years. According to V-Dem, Greece’s democratic erosion began in 2019, coinciding with Kyriakos Mitsotakis becoming prime minister. The report asserts that since then, his government has gradually weakened the rule of law and press freedom. A defining moment came in 2022, when the wiretapping scandal revealed that the Greek government had spied on opposition leaders, journalists, and even members of its own administration. Despite these revelations, Mitsotakis and his party, New Democracy, won an absolute majority in the 2023 elections, while three new nationalist far-right parties gained a foothold in parliament, further challenging Greece’s democratic commitments.

However, the 2024 European Parliament elections dealt a serious electoral blow to New Democracy, which saw its lowest vote share in 15 years, dropping to 28.3%. The report confirms that Greece was formally reclassified from a liberal democracy to an electoral democracy at the end of 2022, and this status remains unchanged in 2024.

Beyond Greece, the V-Dem report paints a troubling picture of democracy on a global scale. The findings suggest that the state of democracy worldwide has regressed to levels last seen in the 1980s and 1990s. The average citizen today lives under political conditions resembling those of 1985, while the average country's democratic standing is equivalent to that of 1996. The report also emphasizes that democracy is at its weakest point in 50 years, particularly in the area of economic governance.

For the first time in two decades, authoritarian regimes now outnumber democracies, with 91 authoritarian states compared to just 88 democracies. Even more concerning is the fact that liberal democracies have become the least common form of government worldwide, with only 29 countries still classified as such in 2024. Meanwhile, 72% of the global population—nearly three out of four people—now live under some form of authoritarian rule, the highest percentage since 1978.

The report identifies press freedom as one of the most threatened democratic pillars, with restrictions tightening in 44 countries in 2024, compared to 35 last year. It also notes that 25 countries saw declines in electoral integrity, 22 experienced weakening of civil society freedoms, and 18 suffered erosion in the rule of law.

The global trend toward authoritarianism has been relentless for the past 25 years, affecting nearly 40% of the world’s population, or 3.1 billion people. By contrast, only 6% of the global population—approximately 452 million people—live in countries that are becoming more democratic, with two-thirds of them concentrated in Brazil, Poland, and Thailand.

The number of countries slipping into authoritarianism has now reached 45, with 27 of them previously classified as democracies. However, only 9 of those democracies have managed to survive the shift, marking a staggering 67% “democratic mortality rate”. The most common tactics used by governments to consolidate authoritarian power include media censorship, interference in electoral processes, and restrictions on civil society organizations.

Despite the global democratic decline, a handful of countries remain steadfast in upholding democratic values. The V-Dem report names Denmark, Estonia, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Australia, and Belgium as the world’s most democratic nations in 2024.