Global Rule of Law Jeopardized by Sharp Democratic Backsliding in the United States, Watchdog Warns

A severe erosion of democratic standards within the United States is driving a broader international retreat from the rule of law, according to a comprehensive assessment by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. The intergovernmental watchdog found that almost half of the core metrics used to evaluate the health of American governance have plunged to their lowest points in five decades.

In its newly released study, International IDEA characterized the United States as both the most significant example and the primary catalyst of an intensifying global democratic downturn. The report cautions that institutional decay in Washington is no longer just a domestic concern, but an escalating hazard that reverberates far beyond American shores.

The findings reflect a broader systemic crisis across the globe. Between 2020 and 2025, approximately 57 percent of countries saw drops in at least one fundamental measure of democratic performance. Worldwide judicial independence has degraded to a 36-year nadir, while the credibility of national elections has sunk to its poorest standing in three decades.

Despite these widespread declines, researchers focused heavily on the United States due to the extraordinary velocity of its institutional deterioration and its outsized global influence. The report emphasizes that when the world's most prominent democracy dismantles its own norms, it weakens long-standing international alliances and directly emboldens autocratic tendencies across multiple continents.

Highlighting the systemic danger, International IDEA Secretary-General Kevin Casas-Zamora observed that the rule of law has historically formed the bedrock of democratic resilience on both national and international stages. He noted that the swift descent of American democracy is actively crippling independent judiciaries and fracturing the wider international order, creating profound vulnerabilities worldwide.

The analysis specifically details how the executive branch under President Donald Trump consolidated power to advance narrow individual objectives and initiate retribution against perceived adversaries. In such a climate, institutional checks have weakened significantly and the environment for civic discourse has narrowed, making public resistance increasingly fraught.

Between 2020 and 2025, the United States registered statistically significant downturns across seven key indicators, including judicial autonomy, freedom of speech, access to the justice system, and press freedom. Excluding the metric for free political parties, every single one of these degraded indicators sank to the lowest level ever documented in the organization's historical dataset.

The deterioration of media freedom was identified as a particularly acute area of concern. The watchdog highlighted funding reductions aimed at public broadcasters, including PBS, NPR, and the US Agency for Global Media, alongside aggressive personal attacks directed at journalists—particularly women—and ongoing litigation targeting prominent news organizations such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the BBC.

Higher education institutions have encountered similar institutional pressures. The report observed that executive interventions have targeted university accreditation and hiring processes while withholding critical federal funding from prestigious academic establishments, citing Harvard University and Columbia University as prominent examples of declining free expression.

The report identified the executive management of the immigration apparatus as the starkest demonstration of compromised legal access. It cited the removal of 137 Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, noting that many individuals had minimal or unproven links to the Tren de Aragua criminal gang and were deprived of legal avenues to contest their expulsions before a court.

These domestic trends have generated visible copycat effects internationally. The study pointed to the events following Brazil's 2022 presidential election, where former leader Jair Bolsonaro attempted to hold onto power and supporters subsequently stormed state institutions, closely mirroring the unrest surrounding the 2020 American transition of power.

Similarly, in Serbia, government authorities capitalized on rhetoric originating from Washington regarding purported mismanagement at the United States Agency for International Development to justify targeted raids against domestic civil society groups and independent organizations.

The watchdog emphasized that the fraying of democratic safeguards carries severe repercussions for international peace and security. Historical analysis within the study demonstrates a direct correlation between the decay of democratic norms and a heightened risk of armed confrontation across borders.

Underscoring this connection, the report highlighted data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program showing 65 active violent conflicts globally in 2025—the highest annual total recorded since the dataset began tracking conflicts in 1946. This milestone included eight distinct state-versus-state wars, representing an unprecedented peak in modern interstate warfare.

Ultimately, the International IDEA report warns that the international architecture relies heavily on predictable, rights-respecting leadership from major democracies. As the United States continues to compromise its own institutional integrity and judicial safeguards, the collective global framework established to protect fundamental freedoms faces an increasingly fragile future.