International organizations that study democracy often regard the presence of public spheres open to political freedoms as a significant indicator of democratic quality. Recent academic studies analysing political regimes, along with reports issued by prominent democracy-focused institutions such as V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy), BTI (Bertelsmann Transformation Index), and EIU (Economist Intelligence Unit), tend to approach the globally increasing trends of democratic backsliding from an authoritarian-centred perspective. This study argues that there is, in fact, no genuine democratic backsliding occurring worldwide; instead, the perception of democratic decline stems from the misinterpretation of a series of regime changes during the so-called “third wave of democracy” as transitions to democracy. The study examines the problems of political transformation experienced in the systems of several states in South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia that were presumed to have shifted from authoritarian regimes to democracy at the end of the last century. The research further reveals that, on a global scale, the emergence of advanced communication technologies and, paradoxically, democratic regimes themselves have increasingly become factors that threaten democracy.
Hümeyrə Mustafayeva (Thu,) studied this question.