We draw on V-Dem data to present global democratic trends since 1789 and revisit key descriptive questions on the global spread of democratic institutions. We provide a comprehensive, nuanced, and disaggregated assessment of democratic development through modern history. We first consider the spread of electoral democracy from 1789 until the present day. Over this period, the world has witnessed a massive spread of electoral democracy. However, the spread has been uneven; substantial upturns and downturns have tended to cluster in different time periods, and all along there have been noteworthy cross-region differences in levels of electoral democracy. Second, we take on a disaggregate perspective and look at trends in sub-components of electoral democracy, namely adult suffrage, elected officials, clean elections, freedom of association, and freedom of expression. Finally, we change our focus from electoral democracy to describe trends pertaining to “thicker” understandings of democracy, that is, ‘liberal democracy’, ‘deliberative democracy’, ‘participatory democracy’, and ‘egalitarian democracy’.

For the most part, media organizations in Western Democracies have justified their freedom and their practices on the grounds that it promotes an informed citizenry for liberal democracy. There are more specific goals, for example, investigating social problems in the inner city, and helping citizens track trends in finance and business. There are also less important goals for journalism, such as entertainment, keeping sports fans up-to-date on their teams, and informing citizens about the latest consumer products. These functions are regarded as sub-goals within the over-arching goal of democracy promotion.