Governments around the world have slipped toward autocracy in recent years. Using historical data and case studies, Deutsche Welle (DW) looks at how democracies have fared against such threats. Here is an excerpt:

Before being elected president of Brazil in 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was granted seven terms in Congress by voters. Up for reelection in October and facing the first possible ballot box defeat of his career, Bolsonaro has suggested several times over the past year that he would not concede defeat if voters choose his opponent.

“Only God can remove me from the presidential chair,” Bolsonaro said in more than one political rally over the last two years, apparently threatening to defy the very democratic system that put him in power in the first place.

Around the world, countries are facing threats posed by would-be autocrats. And the road to restoring democracy is long and hard, as a DW analysis of century-spanning data shows.

Read the full article here.