‘Things are serious: the ‘great democratic revolution’ of modern times, as Tocqueville once called it, appears to be spluttering to a halt. Some observers, recalling the disasters of the 1920s and 30s, are suggesting that an anti-democratic counterrevolution on a global scale has begun.’
This is how John Keane begins his keynote article to a new Eurozine focal point gathering perspectives from eastern Europe, Central Asia and beyond, in countries and regions where the future of democracy hangs in the balance.
But is the writing really on the wall for democracy? Or does a declinist bias prevent us from recognizing moments of democratic renewal? What can ‘established democracies’ learn from those struggling for democratic standards outside the centre?
In this focal point, empirical and theoretical approaches combine to provide a snapshot of the state of democracy at a historical moment of war and instability.

In collaboration with

The current regime in Tbilisi – nominally led by Irakli Garibashvili but with oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili pulling the strings – marks a sea change in Georgia’s gradual pro-western path of development over the past thirty years. For all the faults of past governments, there is no precedent for the authoritarian turn underway since 2020.

An escalation of violence brought Brazil to the verge of democratic collapse on 8 January, as Bolsonaristas stormed the centres of power, calling for a military coup. The worst was averted, but the country faces deep social divisions and a radicalized far-right, leaving President Lula no room for error.

Women’s rights activists protesting for a democratic Iran counteract armed police on the streets with non-hierarchical leadership, a rhizomatic network, transnationality and flash mobs. Their momentum, supported globally via the Iranian diaspora, also benefits from a legacy of historic feminist action under extreme oppression.

Surveillance state
At the roots of Greece’s spyware scandal
In the last decades, Greece has proven to be a resilient democracy that not even a devastating economic crisis could overturn. The current surveillance scandal and its political handling, however, raise the shadow of a traumatic past that no amount of file destruction could erase.