INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
In January, as this bumper year of elections got under way, breathless editorials and reheated hot takes made it clear the stakes could not
very concept could make it to December intact.View image in fullscreenGuardian Weekly cover illustration | Did democracy survive?
Illustration: Peter ReynoldsIn 2024, billions of people voted across more than 80 countries, including some of the most populous, most
authoritarian and most fragile
seemingly snuffed out in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab spring.View image in fullscreenA woman in front of a Putin mural after voting
Photograph: AFP/Getty ImagesThroughout it all, the relative strength or weakness of global democracy hung in the balance, with the
presidential election in the US sitting at the end of the year like a giant question mark.So, how did democracy fare in 2024?Even before the
year began, warning lights were flashing around the world
Between 2020 and 2024 a fifth of all election results faced a challenge in some form, research from International IDEA found
In the same period, one in five elections saw the losing candidates publicly reject the outcome, while opposition parties boycotted one in
10 elections.Combined, these factors were said to pose a serious challenge, as voters questioned the very viability of the electoral process
majority was shattered by years of scandal and dysfunction
There were also record levels of apathy
Just over half of British adults voted, making it by some measures the lowest turnout by share of population since universal suffrage.But as
the results of elections held across the world are combed through, the UK could prove to be an outlier
Analysis of the International IDEA voter turnout database shows that on average, voter turnout has risen for the first time in almost 20
If not in decline, democracy was certainly under attack.As some forecast the further hollowing of democracy, well-organised citizens and
Photograph: Annika Hammerschlag/The GuardianIn March, an attempt by the incumbent president to delay elections backfired, energising the
accountability was found not at the ballot box, but on the streets
figures arrested and protests met with heavy police violence.Just a few months later though, Hasina had fled the country, forced from power
by student-led protests that were sparked by opposition to a quota system for government jobs
government, led by the Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, is now tasked with ambitious democratic reforms to rebuild key state institutions from
potentially stolen election could prove to be fatal in the long term
passivity when it came to enthusiasm over what democracy could deliver voters
In the US, nearly half of all voters said that democracy did not do a good job of representing ordinary people, while a poll of more than 30
Melbourne.In February, Indonesia elected as president Prabowo Subianto, a former general dogged by allegations of human rights abuses
His opponents claimed that the vote had been undermined by unfair rule changes, while the outgoing president, Joko Widodo, was accused of
process is likely to have left a bitter taste in the mouths of many voters.View image in fullscreenDemonstrators throw stones at the police
outside the parliament in Bandung, West Java, in Indonesia
experienced democratic backsliding with the rise of rightwing populism, anti-immigration sentiment and the decline of the welfare
billionairesDemocratic backsliding is occurring in an unprecedented number of wealthy countries once thought immune to such forces as well,
according to Riedl.Such processes are incremental and harder to recognise in real time, Riedl states in her study on the issue, but they may
candidates to unify, in opposition to authoritarian figures
Donald Trump in Pennsylvania
Photograph: Ryan Collerd/AFP/Getty ImagesIn many ways, the US is at the cutting edge of the trends that are most clearly emblematic of
democratic danger: an electoral process interfered with by foreign powers, an avalanche of misinformation and a growing plutocratic class
voters, from India, to Thailand, to the United States, said Hadiz, who added that such plutocrats could be a powerful force in engendering
leadership candidates in 2024
There were no female candidates for the top jobs in elections in Indonesia, India, the UK, Pakistan and South Africa.As of November, the
number of UN member states with a female head of government was 17, slightly down from 19 in 2023.Stanford University researchers suggest
that as well as gender stereotypes holding back female politicians, they are also hampered by voters who decide not to back their preferred
female candidate because they believe it will be too difficult for her to win
In the US, women did show up for Kamala Harris but less than they did for Joe Biden in 2020.Directly south of the US border, however, the
former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum won the presidency
fullscreenClaudia Sheinbaum attends a military parade commemorating the 114th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution
Photograph: Rodrigo Oropeza/AFP/Getty ImagesGlobally, the scene is much worse, with the percentage of women in legislatures at just over 27%
on average in October, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), an independent organisation
That was a rise of just 0.2% since last year.At the current rate, it will take 130 years before gender equality is reached in the highest
positions of power, according to the UN.The curse of incumbencyWith the benefit of hindsight, 2024 might be better remembered as a year in
which voters used the ballot box to punish incumbents for economic issues that were often well beyond their control.There is little evidence
from the elections to show global trends to either the left or the right side of politics, rather it was who was in power at the time who
lost out.Research from the Financial Times found that every single governing party in the developed world which stood for election in 2024
The paper notes that this was the first time in the history of universal suffrage that such an outcome was recorded.Across a number of
countries, including the UK, Japan, Austria and Portugal, voters angered by cost of living concerns and a perceived failure to deal with
them, inflicted huge pain on incumbent parties and politicians.In the end, the lessons of 2024 are likely not to be drawn from politicians
that emerged victorious, but from those who accepted their defeats with grace and probity.After a bruising election in the US, which saw
bomb threats at voting booths, an attempt to assassinate Trump and police snipers watching over ballot counters, Harris took to the stage to
American democracy, she said, was that when a person lost, those results were accepted
It was a sentiment that just a few years ago might have appeared hackneyed or cliched, but that hit hard in a country that faced
unprecedented threats to its institutions.But despite the violence and retribution which characterised so much of 2024, it was a sentiment
which echoed in elections across the globe, from Lithuania to Taiwan to the leafy suburbs of England, from where the former UK chancellor
Jeremy Hunt spoke to an awaiting crowd on 5 July having just held on to his seat, knowing that his Conservative party was facing a defeat of
This article first appeared/also appeared in theguardian.com
