South Korea is hosting the third edition of the “summit of democracy“, which will take place until Wednesday March 20. Initiated by American President Joe Biden in 2021, this event aims to strengthen solidarity between democratic regimes, in the face of the rise of authoritarianism in the world.
Many government officials, NGOs and members of civil society are therefore expected to once again take part in this program of meetings on international cooperation, focused this year on “democracy for future generations”. A summit, however, has been criticized in previous years for not having invited certain countries that consider themselves democratic, such as Thailand or Turkey.
The United States, for its part, confirmed its participation in this event with the presence of the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. In press conference On Wednesday, the American national security adviser, Kelly Razzouk, estimated that this summit took place “at a critical moment”, while “2024 could be one of the most important electoral years in history”, due to of the forty elections planned this year.
Added to this is a downward trend in democratic standards, according to the research group’s 2023 report The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), published on February 15. Thus, the global average of its democracy index, assigned to each country, fell to 5.23 out of 10, compared to 5.29 the previous year. This is the lowest level since the publication of the first study in 2006. A small glimmer of hope: two additional countries will be classified as democracies in 2023: Paraguay and Papua New Guinea.