Democracy today is going through a bad time all around the world. The ghost of the Arab Spring still haunts us. Authoritarianism and dictatorship have emerged within various structures in different countries around the world. By taking away the freedom of expression and the right to elect people's representatives, dictators have muzzled their respective citizenries. The cries of the oppressed people can be heard in the streets.

At such a time, the summit for democracy was held on December 9-10 at the initiative of US President Joe Biden. The Biden administration invited 110 countries from around the world to take part in the virtual event. Naturally, China and Russia did not get the call, as the Biden administration claimed that the conference was to save the world from their dictatorship. But what of the countries that did it make it to the list?

Democracy now exists in 91 of the 110 countries invited to the conference, according to Freedom House, a Washington-based watchdog that has been working on democracy and human rights for 80 years. In other words, 19 of the invited countries have partial or no democracy. These include Angola, Congo, and Iraq. Democracy in these three countries is blocked, says Freedom House. Only 16 African countries have been invited to the conference, which is one-third of the continent. Although Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Madagascar, Benin and Burkina Faso are better ranked on the Freedom House Democracy Index than those 16 countries, there is no clear answer as to why they were not invited. Meanwhile, the Philippines and Pakistan in Asia do not have real civil liberties and free and fair elections. Both countries are adept at suppressing opposition. Democracy in India is also moving in the wrong direction. But these countries were invited. Similarly, war-torn Iraq in the Middle East was invited to the conference.

Steven Feldstein, a senior member of the Cornish Endowment, a non-aligned international think tank, said 30 percent of the invited countries had either partial or incomplete civil and political rights. He made the remarks citing Freedom House's 2021 report on civil and political rights.

Does the United States have any moral right to convene or lead a summit on democracy? They have worked directly and indirectly to overthrow many democratic governments in the name of regime change. Former US President Donald Trump's warm relationship with dictatorial leaders around the world was well-known. During his term in office, the whole world witnessed horrific events. After terrorising citizens with arms in front of polling booths on election day last year, Trump supporters attacked the Capitol Hill, the seat of US government, in January this year. Racial discrimination is on the rise in the country. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey conducted on citizens in 18 countries, 56 percent think that the United States is not a good example for democracy. It ranks below Chile, Slovakia and Costa Rica in the Freedom House list of democracies. Thirty-three laws have been enacted in 19 states of the United States to make it difficult for people to vote. In some states, neutral election officials have been replaced by party ideologues. In addition, North Carolina and Texas have changed their electoral maps to get results in the polls.

The United States is on the list of backsliding democracies, as revealed last month by the Stockholm-based international think tank International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance—for the first time in history. At present, a significant part of the US citizens is in doubt about the credibility of their latest election. According to a poll by the non-profit US media National Public Radio, only 33 percent of Republicans believe the 2024 presidential election will be transparent.

Of the 195 independent nations recognised by the United Nations, 85 countries, including Bangladesh, were not invited to the democracy summit. Due to such a questionable list, the foreign minister of Bangladesh recently commented that only countries with weak democracies were invited in the first phase of the conference. Other countries that have not been called by Biden can perhaps also find solace in the disputed list.

In the current context, the success of the democracy summit is in question. History also speaks against the United States. Democracy meetings of 106 countries were held in June 2000 in Warsaw, Poland. The initiators were then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek. Russia and some Arab countries were invited as potential democracies. The Warsaw Declaration vows to protect human rights. However, the implementation of that declaration has not seen much progress. On the contrary, the condition of democracy in the world has deteriorated day by day over the last 15 years.

It is still too early to say if President Biden was too optimistic about the success of the Summit for Democracy. The influence of dictatorship is growing all over the world. Expecting to find a solution through such a special conference is a bit of a stretch.

Furqanul Alam is news editor at Channel24.