The financial crisis did not deal a fatal blow to any democracies, but it did hasten an erosion of the influence of the West. A key symbol of this trend is the anointing of the Group of 20 (G-20) as the key international body for addressing global economic concerns. In the future, the balance of power among competing regime types may be decided by the emerging-market democracies, whose growing economic and political clout may make their internal political debates and foreign policies increasingly important to the future of democracy around the world.
About the Author
Marc F. Plattner is a member of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) Board of Directors. He was on the NED staff from 1984 until 2020, serving first as the director of the grants program. In 1989, he became founding coeditor (with Larry Diamond) of the Journal of Democracy. He later served as codirector of the International Forum for Democratic Studies and as NED’s vice-president for research and studies.
Over the ten years since its first nonracial elections in 1994, South Africa has seen its democratic order become more firmly institutionalized, even as the electoral dominance of the ANC…
