Biden to Decry Democracy ‘Recession’

“President Joe Biden is ready to urge participants at the first White House Summit for Democracy to reverse an ongoing ‘recession’ of democracy that is playing out at a time of rising authoritarianism around the globe and extraordinary strains on foundational institutions in the U.S., the AP reports.

“The two-day virtual summit that starts Thursday has been billed as an opportunity for leaders and civil society experts from some 110 countries to collaborate on fighting corruption and promoting respect for human rights. But the gathering already has drawn backlash from the United States’ chief adversaries and other nations that were not invited to participate.”

Playbook: “The list includes some of the most committed democracies (Finland and New Zealand), some questionable cases (Serbia), and some places where democracy is slipping (Poland, Philippines, and, er, the United States). On some difficult calls, such as Brazil and India, large democracies that have seen several years of anti-democratic drift, Biden’s team decided to be inclusive. But other edge cases, such as Hungary, they didn’t invite at all.”