Consequences of the corona pandemic – developing and emerging countries are becoming more authoritarian – News

In the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, the state of democracies has deteriorated and autocracies have been consolidated.

In its report, the Bertelsmann Stiftung examined 137 developing and emerging countries in the years 2020 to 2021. She speaks of a “low level of political and economic transformation”.

The report shows that every fifth democracy grants its people fewer rights than before. Many countries that were previously considered “defective democracies”, including Turkey, have since developed into autocracies.

According to the foundation, the report is the only one “that measures the quality of government action using self-collected data”. This is done in cooperation with more than 280 experts worldwide.

Autocracies and democracies in the pandemic

According to the report, democracies are managing the pandemic more easily than autocracies. Only two of the countries that have weathered the pandemic well are governed autocratically. Nevertheless, the pandemic led to a severe economic slump in 78 countries.

While democracies decide on temporary measures, autocracies use the crisis to take action against political opponents and further restrict people’s fundamental rights.

According to the foundation, the reasons for the decline in democracy in the states are that many governments first secure their power and only then think about the well-being of the population. They react to political resistance in the population with violence and censorship.

The foundation describes civil society actors in Belarus, Myanmar and Sudan as the “last bastions in the fight against autocratization”. These actors are more committed to democracy than governments.