On 11 September 2025, GLOBALCIT Co-Director Rainer Bauböck participated as a panellist in the global launch of International IDEA’s Global State of Democracy Report 2025: ‘Democracy on the Move’, in Stockholm, Sweden.
The report, part of the long-running Global State of Democracy series, provides a comprehensive assessment of democratic performance worldwide, using a combination of quantitative indices and qualitative analysis. Based on the latest data from the Global State of Democracy Indices, the report finds that over the past five years, democracy worldwide has weakened, with press freedom experiencing its most significant decline in 50 years. More than half of countries (54 percent) showed declines in at least one key measure of democratic performance, including credible elections and freedom of expression. Some areas, however, continue to improve; notably, the reduction of corruption has progressed for the 15th consecutive year. The report also emphasises the growing importance of migration for democratic participation: with 304 million people living outside their country of birth, double the number in 1990, democracies must rethink voter engagement and out-of-country voting systems to strengthen democratic resilience and inclusion.
In his remarks, Bauböck drew on his research on migration, citizenship, and democratic theory, emphasising that high diaspora voter turnout alone cannot guarantee democratic resilience. He stressed that such participation must be complemented by strong domestic engagement and protections against political manipulation of diaspora communities.
Bauböck also presented findings from the new GLOBALCIT Migrant Electoral Rights (MER) dataset, which tracks legal conditions for voting and candidacy rights of non-resident citizens and non-citizen residents worldwide from 1960-2020. Based on this data, he showed that – although their numbers have declined over the years – at least 75 million migrants remain fully disenfranchised in both their countries of residence and origin.
The full recording of the launch event is available here on International IDEA’s YouTube channel, and the Global State of Democracy 2025 Report: Democracy on the Move can be accessed here.