(4) The "beacon of democracy" draws global criticism

The people of the world?have a?discerning eye. They see very well the flaws and deficiencies of?democracy?in the US,?hypocrisy?in exporting US?"democratic values", and US?acts of bullying?and hegemony around the world in the name of?democracy.

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson once noted?that the US?is?accustomed to posing as the?"global beacon of democracy"?and urging everyone else to take a humane approach to what they?call?"peaceful protests", but adopting?completely?opposite measures at home. She further noted?that the US?is "not a beacon of democracy", and that the US administration "would do well to, first of all, listen to its own?citizens?and try to hear them, instead of engaging in witch-hunts?in their own country?and afterwards talking hypocritically about human rights in other countries". The US is?in no position to lecture other countries on human rights and civil?liberties, she noted.

In May 2021, Latana, a German polling agency, and the Alliance of Democracies founded by former NATO Secretary General and former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, released a?Democracy Perception Index?which is based on a survey of over 50,000 people?in 53 countries. The findings reveal?that 44% of respondents?are concerned?that the US?may pose a threat to democracy in their country, 50% of Americans surveyed are concerned?that the US?is an undemocratic country, and 59% of US respondents?think that their government acts in the interest of a small group of people.

In June 2021, Brian Klaas, Associate Professor of Politics at University College London, contributed?an article to?The?Washington Post?entitled "The world is horrified by the dysfunction of American democracy". The article quotes?data from Pew Research?Center, which suggest?that "America is no longer a ‘shining city upon a hill'"?and?that most US allies see democracy in the US as "a shattered, washed-up has-been", and that 69% of respondents?in New Zealand, 65% in Australia, 60% in Canada, 59% in Sweden, 56% in the Netherlands?and 53% in the United Kingdom do not think that the US political system works well. More than a quarter of?people surveyed?in France, Germany, New Zealand, Greece, Belgium and Sweden believe that American democracy has never been a good example?to follow.

A report by the polling agency Eupinions?indicates?that the EU's confidence in the US system has declined, with 52% of respondents?believing?the US democratic system does not work;?65% and 61% of respondents?in France and Germany hold the same view.

In?September 2021, Martin Wolf, a renowned British scholar,?pointed out?in his article "The strange death of American?democracy" contributed to?The Financial Times?that the US political environment has reached an "irreversible" point, and "the transformation of the democratic republic into an autocracy has advanced".

In November 2021, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, a Sweden-based think tank, released The Global State of Democracy listing the US as a "backsliding democracy"?for the first time. The Secretary?General of the institute said that "the visible deterioration of democracy in the United States" is "seen in the increasing tendency to contest credible election results, the efforts to suppress participation (in elections), and the runaway polarization".

Indian political activist Yogendra Yadav points?out that the United States is not "an exemplar of democracy", that the world has realized that the US needs to reflect on its democracy and learn from other democracies.

Mexican magazine Proceso?comments?that behind a seemingly free and democratic facade, the US?system of democracy has major flaws.

Sithembile Mbete, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria, writes?in?an?article?published in?Mail and Guardian?that "many of the markers of free and fair elections — a universal voters' roll, centralized election management, uniform rules and regulations — are absent in the American system. Much of what we Africans have been trained to recognize as good electoral conduct has never existed in the US."