Executive Summary 4

1. Democracy in the World 2025 7

Democratic Gains Since 1978 Eradicated 8

Autocracies and Democracies 10

Most People Live in Autocracies 11

The “Great Reversal”: 2000 vs. 2025 12

2. Trends of Regime Transformation 17

The “Third Wave” of Autocratization Dominates 17

Regime Transformation Across Regions 19

3. Autocratizing Countries 21

Stand-Alone Autocratization 22

Bell-Turn Autocratization 24

4. Democratizing Countries 27

Stand-Alone Democratization 28

U-Turn Democratization 30

5. In Focus: Autocratization in the USA 33

The Most Dramatic Decline in American History 33

The Most Rapid “Executive Aggrandizement” in Modern History 34

Dismantling Checks and Balances – Concentrating Power 34

Undoing Civil Rights and Equality before the Law 36

Seeking to Silence Media, Dissenting Voices, and Academia 37

Associations Free – But not from Acts of Suppression 38

Elections Remain Largely Unaffected – For Now 38

What Would It Take for a U-Turn? 39

Appendices 40

V-Dem in Numbers 40

Watchlist 2026 41

Commentary on the Democracy Report 42

Regimes of the World 1975–2025 44

LDI Scores 2015/2025 46

Democracy Rankings and Scores 2025 48

Publications from the V-Dem Team 51