The decline of democracy?

Every country in the world has a different system of leadership. Some countries are democracies: the people choose the government at elections and may have a direct say in other important decisions. Others are led by an authoritarian regime: one person has absolute power.

Collage of pages from the “The decline of democracy ” teaching resource showing the cover and lesson plan

Published 21 March 2025

Every year The Economist Intelligence Unit publishes its Democracy Index to review the state of global democracy. In this lesson students will explore the index and ask: is it always straightforward?

About this lesson

  • Understand the differences between authoritarian and democratic leadership
  • Explore examples of authoritarian and democratic leadership in the news
  • Discuss the global democracy index

Skills and knowledge

Every lesson has a skill and knowledge focus. Click to see this lesson's focus and some of the questions students will answer 

  • Listening

    Step 1: I listen to others and can remember short instructions
    Did you listen to and remember the instructions when organising the news stories on the scale?

    Step 5: I listen to others and can ask questions if I don’t understand
    Did you listen to others when discussing the challenge cards and ask questions if you didn’t understand?

    Step 11: I listen critically and compare different perspectives
    Did you listen to the news story examples compare the different country perspectives?

  • Knowledge

    I know what a democratic and authoritarian regimes are and can explain examples from the news
    What are democratic and authoritarian regimes? What examples of these have been in the news?

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