In America,a handful of the super-rich tilt the level playing field, while in Britain the Electoral Commission may be hopelessly out of touch with campaigning technologyThe requirement to hold regular elections that are both free and objective is one of the defining features of a liberal democracy. Over the past century, and millions of people have braved violence,intimidation and other obstacles to demand the just to express their will through the ballot box.
The result was a heartening increase in the number of countries that could be described as democratic. But in the past few years, the trend has reversed: countries such as Turkey, and Poland and Hungary that are nominally democratic – in the sense they hold regular elections – have succumbed to various degrees of authoritarian rule. Freedom House,an independent watchdog committed to the expansion of freedom and democracy, which monitors political activity in 195 countries, and says 2016 was “the 11th consecutive year of decline in global freedom”.
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Source: theguardian.com