Democracy in South and Southeast Asia in Danger: Are the Democratic Attributes Being Replaced by Autocrats?

The current wave of autocratization involves more and economically stronger countries than in the past 120 years. Targeted disinformation, toxic polarization, and autocratization reinforce each other, creating a vicious cycle that affects both democratic and authoritarian regimes. The world map shows democracies as well as autocracies, indicating whether they were involved in armed conflict (domestic and international) in 2021. Most democratic countries were peaceful in 2021 (dark purple).

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