The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Freedom House was founded in 1941 to conduct research on democracy, political freedom, and human rights trends in countries around the world. It's been producing an annual “Freedom in the World” survey since 1973 that compiles that information.
For the first 32 years that survey indicated an overall trend toward democracy and freedom, but then something began to change around 2005 and for the past 17 years the trendline has reversed toward authoritarianism.
But, Freedom House just released its 2023 survey and it opens with “The global struggle for democracy approached a possible turning point in 2022,” noting that "the number of countries suffering declines in 2022 was the lowest it’s been in 17 years, and was nearly matched by the number of countries experiencing improvements."
We explore these trends with Michael Abramowitz, he is President of Freedom House and the former director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Levine Institute for Holocaust Education, and a former national editor and White House correspondent for The Washington Post.
Mr. Abramowitz was in southwest Florida on Wednesday, March 15 to give a talk for the Holocaust Museum & Cohen Education Center.
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