Irish Examiner view: Is the US no longer a democracy?

US president Donald Trump has accomplished the suppression of democratic institutions in just one year. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP

It is a shocking assertion to take in, but a new report from a reputable watchdog warns the United States of America can no longer be classed as a democracy.

The shift in mainstream American politics under the Trump administration has been viewed from within and afar with dismay, but few truly anticipated that the current incumbent of the White House could do irreparable damage to the self-proclaimed "greatest democracy in the world".

But, last week, one of the most credible global sources on the health of democratic nations declared that America is no longer rated as one of them.

The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute in Gothenburg University in Sweden delivered this alarming conclusion in its annual report.

It determined that the USA is hurtling towards autocracy at a faster rate than countries such as Hungary and Turkey. It said this decline has been marked by “executive overreach, alongside attacks on the press, academia, civil liberties, and dissenting voices”.

Having studied data on the country going back to 1798, V-Dem has ascertained that we are now seeing in America the “most severe magnitude of democratic backsliding ever”.

The founder of the institute, Staffan Lindberg, who leads a small number of researchers in Sweden and who has made it the world’s leading source for analysis of the health of global democracy, concluded in the report that the US, for the first time in more than half a century, has lost its status as a liberal democracy.

America is, the report says, “now going through a rapid process of autocratisation” and Donald Trump has accomplished the suppression of democratic institutions in just one year.

“For Orban in Hungary, it took four years; for Vucic in Serbia, it took eight years; while for Erdogan in Turkey, and Modi in India, it took ten years,” the report notes.

US democracy is now back at its worst recorded level since 1965, when US civil rights laws first introduced de facto universal suffrage. All progress made since then has been erased.

And it is not just the USA which is turning to the right; worldwide, the report suggests democracy has receded to its lowest levels since the mid-’70’s. A record 41% (3.4bn) of the world’s population currently resides in countries where democracy is deteriorating — and Washington is leading the charge.

Certainly, democracy is not a perfect system of government, but as history has illustrated, it is easily the best of a bad lot. Sadly — and led by people such as Trump — all too many feel otherwise. He and his ilk are shredding political and democratic norms and if they are allowed succeed, we will all pay a heavy price.

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Prevention is better than cure

As a nation Ireland learned a lot during the covid crisis, and prime among the lessons gleaned was the importance of preventative vaccination.

The recent outbreak of meningitis B in England — where 29 suspected cases of the virulent condition have been seen in Kent, with 19 confirmed cases and two deaths — should cause a frisson of fear throughout the health system in this country.

And yet, a catch-up campaign utilising the meningitis B vaccine is not planned for Ireland.

By last Saturday evening across the county of Kent, some 8000 catch-up vaccinations and more than 12,000 antibiotic doses had been administered. All cases of the virus outbreak were among young adults who had missed out on vaccines because it only became part of Britain’s standard health programme in 2015.

Here in Ireland, the meningitis B vaccine has only been offered for babies and young children since 2016. Even though most young people here have been vaccinated against the A, C, Y and W strains of meningitis, they have no protection against the B strain.

The rationale of the authorities here is that to begin vaccinating this cohort would be expensive and the probability of an outbreak is low, but the presence of the virus in England suggests it might not be long coming to our shores. Lessons we learned during covid should be heeded now.

Sharing crowded lecture halls, partying together in nightclubs and bars and — worst of all — sharing vapes, make the student population particularly vulnerable to easily spreadable diseases.

On this basis alone, the authorities here should seriously consider their position on meningitis B vaccinations.

Side effect of housing crisis

Homelessness in this country, we know, has reached situation critical, but it is also having a further unwanted consequence — it is blocking up our hospital system.

It emerged in these pages at the weekend that nearly 200 people could not be discharged from hospital in 2025 — despite being well enough to do so — because they were homeless.

In 2024 and 2025, five children had discharges delayed because they had no fixed abode.

Homelessness is already having a destabilising impact on Irish society without this additional side effect.

Last month, the homeless figures reached the 17,000 mark for the first time, with monthly figures from the Department of Housing showing that 11,793 adults and 5,319 children were without somewhere they can call home. In a modern, wealthy, first-world country, these figures are of themselves a disgrace.

That this crisis is also impacting on the health system makes them all the more alarming.

The HSE says it is developing a protocol — already operational in Dublin and planned for implementation nationwide — designed to support safe and appropriate discharge from hospital. It obviously cannot come fast enough.

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