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Despite widespread claims that parliamentary systems with an indirectly elected president produce better outcomes for democratic governance, constitutional reform to move away from a directly elected president to an indirectly elected president is extremely rare.

Yesterday, the European Commission released its yearly Enlargement Reports, its annual assessment of the reform progress in each European Union (EU) candidate country and potential candidates. This International IDEA analysis assesses the Enlargement Reports from the point of view of democracy and fundamental values and presents five key takeaways.

The global state of democracy in 2023 is complex, fluid and unequal. Across every region of the world, democracy has continued to contract, with declines in at least one indicator of democratic performance in half of the countries covered in the Report.

This Case Study is part of The Global State of Democracy 2023 Report. 

As political campaigning in the lead-up to elections has moved online, parties and candidates have found new and innovative methods for connecting with voters. However, new challenges have multiplied, with the regulation and oversight authorities struggling to keep up. Campaign communications are increasingly opaque online, thus enabling harmful mis- and disinformation to influence electoral narratives.

Organising the first post-war elections will pose unprecedented challenges for Ukraine, as a significant part of the electoral infrastructure has been damaged, and millions of voters are now displaced within or outside the country.

International IDEA facilitated the discussion on the role of the open government for Ukraine's democratic resilience and reconstruction in the framework of the 8th Open Government Partnership Global Summit, which took place on September 6-7, 2023 in Tallinn, Estonia.

On 4-5 July, 2023, in Tirana, Albania, International IDEA in cooperation with Rule of Law Centre of Finland and Center Election Commission of Albania hosted the regional roundtable on "Interinstitutional Cooperation on Digitalization of Electoral Processes and Cybersecurity in the Western Balkans".

This report seeks to contribute to the success of the Summit for Democracy process by drawing lessons from the Year of Action and Second Summit and presenting opportunities for shaping an inclusive and effective Third Summit for Democracy.

In recent years, the global democracy landscape drastically changed. This Policy Brief argues that the European Union's narrative on democracy should be adjusted to respond to this new geopolitical reality. The EU should take a leading role in defending democratic and accountable governance and explaining its benefits for citizens.

The European Union, Member States and election bodies need to explore the possibilities to provide support for Ukraine to ensure that the millions of displaced voters due to the Russian aggression can vote in the first post-war elections, according to a dialogue of European lawmakers, election management bodies and experts.

On 24 May 2023, International IDEA hosted a workshop organized by the Swedish Presidency in the framework of the Informal meeting of the EU Council Working Party on Human Rights (COHOM).

While the regulatory frameworks of most countries include some provisions on the transparency of political finance, the mere declaration of this principle is often not sufficient to guarantee a fair political competition or comprehensive accountability and integrity on the part of political actors.

Turkey is preparing to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on 14 May, three months after two catastrophic quakes that affected 15.8 million people in the country’s southeastern part.

To support the efforts of the Albanian civil society organizations in their watchdog role and ability to track money flows in politics as well as to strengthen their capacities in making the best use of online systems, International IDEA and Rule of Law Centre of Finland, in partnership with Central Election Commission (CEC), hosted on April 19^th  in Ti

As the online space is increasingly the go-to spot for political campaigning, political parties and candidates have new methods to connect with citizens and communicate their policy priorities. However, the rules for political advertising established offline have been found to be insufficient in the online sphere. Online advertising tools are also used for manipulation campaigns that threaten the integrity of our elections.

When technology meets political participation.

More and more political professionals in Europe are trying to find ways to enhance the representativeness and effectiveness of democracy, so forms of participatory and deliberative democracy are on the rise. New tools have emerged to facilitate engagement, digitizing previously analogue processes and widening accessibility and scale.

• The market for online participation and deliberation in Europe is expected to grow to 300 Million Euros in the next five years, and the market for e-voting to 500 Million Euros.