In 2024, nearly half the world’s population, including citizens of the eight most populous nations, voted or will vote in elections. While this signals democratic engagement, many elections are run by autocratic or illiberal regimes pursuing self-serving agendas. Paradoxically thus, as elections are generalising as a practice, democracy is met with growing defiance. On closer scrutiny, however, it appears that not only the indicators of democracy but also those of elections have been declining over the past decade.
This dossier, produced with the Albert Hirschman Centre for Democracy and based on Global Challenges (no. 16, November 2024), examines the essential role of elections in the construction of democracy today.
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