Opinion | Democracy Is Still Thriving. But for How Long?

In this year of elections, when a full quarter of humanity was eligible to vote, pessimism about the fate of democracy has spread among politicians, civil society, media commentators and political scientists.The victory of Donald Trump on Wednesday, with his demagogy and verbal assaults on what he referred to as “enemies from within,” makes the assessment that democracy is in retreat seem all the more plausible.Even before the U.S.

election, liberal thinkers in America and other Western nations warned of a relapse into authoritarianism around the world — or even the coming of a new wave of fascism.Political scientists have spoken darkly of the erosion of civil liberties and democratic institutions known as “democratic backsliding,” the decrease in the number of democratic governments globally and the rise of autocrats.Some election results this year fit into this gloomy picture, including America’s.

In Indonesia, voters elected the former right-hand man of a longtime dictator who is accused of overseeing gross human rights abuses.In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele, whose tough-on-crime government has hobbled his political opposition, handily won a second term in February.Radical right-wing parties made important gains in eastern Germany, the Netherlands and Austria.

In France, while the far-right National Rally came in third in parliamentary elections, it nevertheless made record inroads with voters and the party’s popular former leader Marine Le Pen has a good chance of being elected president in 2027.However worrying, these developments are not harbingers of a global domino effect that will override electoral procedures and break down constitutional barriers.In fact, by many measures, the health of elections is quite robust around the world.Before this year of record voting, the number of changes of government brought about by elections had been stable over the past two decades, according to recent research.

Nor was there any significant evid...