The unintended consequences of judicial valiance

We are living in perilous times for liberal democracy. According to the latest V-Dem Institute Report, the level of democracy worldwide has fallen to levels last seen in 1985 – prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall and breakup of the USSR. The world today has fewer democracies than autocracies for the first time in twenty years, and liberal democracy is now the least common regime type in the world (V-Dem Institute 2025, 6–9). Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2025 report paints a similarly bleak picture, showing that sixty countries in 2025 experienced a decline in civil liberties and political rights, compared to only 34 that showed an improvement. The last time more countries improved on these measures than declined was twenty years ago in 2005 (Freedom House 2025, 1-3).