By: Julian Holbrooke
(SeaPRwire) – Democracy in the United States has officially hit its lowest watermark in half a century, dragging global rule of law down with it and accelerating the risk of international conflict. The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance published a study on Tuesday revealing that nearly half of the thirty distinct metrics used to evaluate American governance have degraded to levels completely unseen since record-keeping began in 1975. Washington is no longer merely a participant in the worldwide democratic recession; it has transformed into the primary engine driving it.
According to the official findings, US institutional performance suffered sharp regressions across seven key areas between 2020 and 2025. These include access to justice, economic equality, freedom of expression, press liberties, congressional efficacy, and judicial independence. The organization notes that this acceleration became most acute during Donald Trump’s second term, marked by the rapid consolidation of executive power designed to bypass traditional checks and balances, pursue personal objectives, and exact retribution against political opponents. Domestically, this shift manifested concretely in policies like the One Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law in July 2025, which slashed crucial government support structures for lower-income households amidst widening domestic wealth gaps.
Beyond domestic policy, this concentration of executive authority translated directly into an aggressive projection of raw power abroad. The report details how Washington leveraged its massive economic and military weight to pressure foreign governments, attempting direct electoral interference in Argentina, Colombia, and Honduras while issuing explicit military threats against Colombia, Cuba, and Mexico. The military operation in Venezuela—which culminated in the seizure of President Nicolas Maduro and his forced transfer to the United States on drug-trafficking charges—serves as the prime illustration of the administration’s informal ‘Donroe Doctrine’, an explicit blueprint for unilateral hemispheric dominance enforced through military might.
This interventionist logic extended rapidly beyond the Americas into active military engagements devoid of multilateral oversight or legal justification. The US-Israeli war on Iran, launched in February without any tangible proof of imminent aggression, proceeded entirely without congressional authorization and completely outside the collective security frameworks mandated by the UN Charter. Just as domestic checks on power continue to erode inside the United States, foreign policy actions systematically dismantle the foundational principle of peaceful dispute resolution, contributing to a global landscape where violent conflicts reached a staggering sixty-five cases in 2025, the highest number recorded since 1946.
Author bio: Julian Holbrooke, an international relations analyst and regular contributor to major European daily newspapers, specializing in global governance structures, democratic institutional decay, and foreign policy strategy.