Democratic Governance: shaping future international cooperation and partnerships

Following a February 2024 Wilton Park convening on international cooperation to support democracy, this dialogue again brought together a globally diverse mix of governments, civil society members and academics to review this subject in light of political developments over the past 12 months.

The participants recognised that, although democracy has survived significant challenges in the past 60 years, the current context feels like a potential turning point. Following 18 years of global decline, collective and urgent action is required to maintain shared democratic values.

Data shows that the majority of global citizens support democratic principles – they want to live freely ¹. But the picture is more nuanced. Democratic governance is integral to key policy challenges that countries and communities are facing, such as achieving inclusive and accountable economic growth, tackling climate change, and fostering security for citizens. At their best, democracies can deliver on these challenges, but when they do not deliver, an anti-democracy narrative can take hold.

The changing global landscape is creating new challenges for reversing the global decline in democratic governance. Traditional models and channels for supporting democracy are weakening at the same time as the effectiveness of democracy as a governance model is being questioned.

Broadly two approaches can be taken, or a combination of both – working with and reforming existing institutions and structures to make them fit for purpose, or developing new models tailored to current contextual needs and geopolitical dynamics. Whichever pathway is chosen, bold and creative solutions are needed to face contemporary poly-crisis. There is also some concern that a lot of time is spent talking about the threat to democracy. What is required now is for democracies to put aside their differences and come together, acting quickly.

Summary

Following the unprecedented number of elections in 2024, the geopolitical context for reversing the downward global trend in democracy looks more difficult than ever. At this pivotal time in March 2025, this Wilton Park event in Nairobi explored opportunities for continuing international cooperation to revitalise democratic governance. This is essential to support global efforts to address policy challenges that matter to people.

Themes discussed were:

• Current context and trends of international cooperation around democracy
• Democracy as a pathway to economic growth, climate action and security
• Participation and power dynamics within international cooperation structures
• Options for international democracy cooperation going forward.

There is scope for relative celebration in that, despite fragmentation in recent decades, democracy has still survived. However, the context for international cooperation on democracy has shifted significantly in the past year, and challenges accelerated in 2025. 72% of people now live in autocracies² and the risk that “democracy will die in isolation” is growing. Deepening the commitment to democracy will depend on the ability of democratic governments to deliver tangible benefits for all, communicate this convincingly, and proactively adapt to evolving geopolitical dynamics – working together to address common challenges.

One starting point is the overwhelming evidence that democratic governance contributes to delivery across all current policy priorities including security, growth and the climate crisis. Those contributions range from complementing military deployments with actions to resolve conflicts peacefully, through stronger accountability and transparency in public financial management, to more sustainable societal commitments to climate mitigation and adaptation.

There is also scope for responding to unmet demand for direct public engagement in governance. Young people, particularly in the Global South, are mobilising through digital platforms, yet they remain largely excluded from formal policy discussions. Significant barriers to women’s political representation persist, including financial and structural. Simultaneously, globalisation – and now geopolitics – has limited national decision-making power, necessitating new thinking.

The landscape of international democracy support is rapidly evolving. Different cooperation models – bilateral, multilateral, and plurilateral³ – offer varied opportunities for coordinating democracy support, with regional partnerships proving particularly effective. However, shifting geopolitical dynamics, including the reduced role of traditional democracy promoters, highlight the need for leadership from the Global South, where many promising democracy innovations are taking place. Combined with longstanding demands for global governance reform, this could play a key role in shaping a new global democracy architecture.

In this time of poly-crisis and an accelerating reversal of democracy, it is crucial that we take urgent action to address the threats from populism, nationalism, authoritarianism, and the spread of disinformation. Addressing these threats requires a more positive narrative on the importance of democracy and creating effective international coordination through new and existing forums. Options exist to take the next steps – those concerned about the future of democracy just need to action them.

Footnotes

1. https://res.cloudinary.com/dfyeeawiq/images/v1718978697/1.-Earth-for-All-Survey-2024_1099988e96/1.-Earth-for-All-Survey-2024_1099988e96.pdf?_i=AA; https://www.afrobarometer.org/topics/democracy-freedom-citizen-engagement/ ↩︎
2. https://v-dem.net/documents/60/V-dem-dr__2025_lowres.pdf ↩︎
3. Plurilateralism is a form of multilateralism that allows for flexible and voluntary cooperation among subsets of countries. ↩︎