New Books in Political Science A Year of Autocratization: Steep Declines in Democracy Registered in 2025 V-Dem Report
Mar 22, 2026
Paul Friesen, research associate focused on V-Dem indicators and global autocratization patterns. Kenneth Roberts, Cornell government professor and comparative politics expert. They discuss the V-Dem 2025 report's startling U.S. score drop and which institutions drove it. They map global shifts—declines in India and Indonesia, recoveries in Poland and Guatemala. Conversation closes on judicial, electoral, and societal fault lines to watch.
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Unprecedented One Year Drop In U.S. Democracy Score
- V-Dem records the U.S. 2025 liberal democracy score plunged 18 points, the largest single-year drop in U.S. history.
- Paul Friesen compares it to Hungary where the worst single-year drop was ~9 points, showing the U.S. decline was unusually steep.
Legislature Deference Drives Much Of U.S. Drop
- V-Dem decomposes liberal democracy into legislature, courts, elections, media, and civil society, and found the legislature showed the deepest decline in the U.S. in 2025.
- Kenneth Roberts explains Republican congressional majorities have been highly deferential to the executive, reducing legislative accountability.
Courts And Elections Still Provide Key Democratic Protections
- Courts in the U.S. have been more resilient than the legislature, with lower courts often checking executive actions while the Supreme Court shows more deference.
- Roberts notes the electoral process remained relatively strong because the 2024 election was clean, keeping the U.S. above electoral autocracy threshold.