INTERVIEW: Bill Browne from the Australia Institute on threats to democracy

Democracy across the world has eroded to its lowest point in two decades, shown by data collected by the German Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation. Of the democratic states assessed by the foundation, two thirds are now categorised as “defective” or “highly defective”. The survey is based on detailed country reports prepared in co-operation with around 300 experts from leading universities and think tanks in more than 120 countries.