US President Joe Biden has vowed a major push to promote democracy worldwide. But since he took office, democracy has faced repeated setbacks.
Among three nations whose democratic transitions had inspired the most hope, Myanmar and Sudan have seen generals roar back, sacking civilian leaders and suppressing street protests, while in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring a decade ago, the president seized wide-ranging powers.
"There is an increase in attacks on democracy around the world -- and not in the demand for democracy," said Derek Mitchell, the first US ambassador to Myanmar after its transition a decade ago. With the possible exception of Afghanistan, where Biden's decision to end the two-decade US war has been hotly debated, few link democracy's woes to the current occupant of the White House."Democracy takes literally decades to consolidate and it takes years to erode. So I think there's very little that any administration could do in the first nine months tangibly moving the needle on global democracy," said Frances Z.
Biden has also taken a distance with Trump allies, halting some military support for Saudi Arabia and leveraging part of its aid to Egypt on human rights progress, although activists say he should go further. State Department spokesman Ned Price acknowledged there have been "setbacks in certain countries" on democracy but added, "We will continue to lead that charge."The Economist Democracy Index rated the global state of democracy in 2020 at its lowest since its survey began in 2006, fueled not only by coups but by the rise of right-wing populists in democracies.
"But it is a similar dynamic where if you do have one side cut off military or economic assistance, there is a foregone conclusion that you can go to the other side," he said.
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