The facts are clear: Democracy is backsliding around the world.
In 2024, more than 40 percent of the global population was affected by declines in freedom, according to Freedom House. On the other hand, positive developments were recorded in 34 countries, demonstrating potential bright spots for democracy.
While statistics may seem distant, the reality of the vulnerability of democracy and the courage and sacrifice of individuals to combat repression were eloquently embodied by Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who spoke at the third annual Miami Conference on Global Democracy, presented by the Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs on April 3.
Due to threats to arrest her, Machado joined the event via Zoom from an undisclosed location – she has been in hiding the past eight months – to participate in a keynote conversation with Damon Wilson, CEO of the National Endowment of Democracy.
"They told us it was impossible (to achieve an electoral win)," she said. "We decided to go beyond that approach from an electoral perspective and understood this was not a political fight exclusively. This was existential, a cultural engagement. … I said, you don't understand. This is about the soul of a nation. This is about, you know, getting everybody involved and committed from a personal perspective."
Machado won a resounding victory in the primary elections in 2023, where she secured more than 92% of the votes. Despite her undeniable triumph in the primaries, the Maduro regime disqualified her from running in the presidential elections in 2024.
She is hopeful that the international community and sanctions by nations, with the United States playing a key role, can help topple the Maduro dictatorship.
"I believe Secretary (of State Marco) Rubio is one of the people in the United States that better understands what's at stake here and what a free Venezuela would mean for the region," she said.
In the face of intense persecution by the regime against her and her team, she continues to lead efforts alongside Venezuelans and the international community to achieve a democratic transition.
"I'm, of course, in pain for those Venezuelans that are being brutally harmed at this moment, but I am confident and very optimistic that things are moving in the right direction," Machado said. "I trust so much in Venezuela, that's where my strength comes from. … Venezuela will be a free, prosperous country."
In another conference session, tempered optimism as well as caution were voiced concerning the impact of technology and artificial intelligence on democracy. While it can bolster freedom, by providing people with tools to build grassroot movements, it can also propagate censorship, surveillance and the circulation of propaganda.
"I believe that the technology itself is neutral," said Donavon Antoney Johnson, assistant professor of Public Policy and Administration. "It's the motivation behind it that drives it, that causes it to have bias. … The players and motivators behind it give rise to bias and give rise to ways in which the technology might then exacerbate existing biases and widen certain gaps." He did note, though, that technology makes governments less able to hide behind disinformation, "making citizens an effective point of oversight."
August Cole, a nonresident senior fellow at Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, said that the increasing role of in AI in our society poses potentially profound impacts on our labor markets, economic systems and personal identity. He warned that we must consider threats that AI presents as it is further developed and deployed on a widespread basis.
A third conference session examined tools being wielded in economic, academic, cultural and social institutions for "elite capture" – the process by which powerful individuals or groups, often with ties to authoritarian regimes, gain disproportionate influence over political, economic and social systems in other countries, thereby undermining their democratic institutions.
"The Chinese Communist Party finds ways of getting to elites that have interests related to China, usually economic ones, and then acting on those interests in the foreign country that is to the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party, as opposed to the citizens or national security interests of that country," explained Sarah Cook, who directed the China Media Bulletin, a monthly digest providing news and analysis on media freedom developments related to China, when she was with Freedom House.
Cook shared a case study on Beijing's increasing efforts to influence media and information around the world; in 18 out of 30 countries, they found an increase. She said in all 30 countries there was Chinese state-backed content being used in 130 local print, television and radio outlets. In addition, social media influencers are being co-opted to spread propaganda.
Discussing Russia's elite capture tactics in her country, Nino Evgenidze, executive director of the Economic Policy Research Center in Tbilisi, Georgia, noted how its economic leveraging and propaganda efforts, in addition other measures including territorial occupation, have eroded this "beacon of democracy."
"It underlies the role of transatlantic unity, which is so important in this fight for freedom and democracy," she said. "I believe that there is no other way to keeping our freedom and independence."
This year's conference was presented in collaboration with the George W. Bush Institute and Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation, and was sponsored by the Dorothea Green Lecture Series and the Václav Havel Program for Human Rights & Democracy.
