The Iscte Centre for International Studies (CEI-Iscte) releases the Portuguese version of the annual report by the Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem), entitled Democracy Report 2026: Unravelling the Democratic Era?. As a member of the international V-Dem network, through the Regional Centre for Southern Europe, CEI-Iscte is responsible for translating and disseminating the Portuguese edition of the report, thereby promoting access for the academic community, policy-makers and the general public to one of the most significant international analyses of the state of democracy.
The 2026 edition includes a new chapter dedicated to Portugal, authored by Tiago Fernandes (CEI-Iscte) and Sara Pina (U. Lusófona), which analyses recent developments in Portuguese democracy based on indicators from the V-Dem project. The study examines aspects such as political polarisation, the quality of democratic deliberation and the dynamics of civic mobilisation in support of or in opposition to democratic principles.
The results indicate significant changes in the national political landscape over the past decade. The authors identify an increase in levels of political polarisation and a decline in the deliberative quality of public debate. At the same time, the data reveal an intensification of pro-autocratic mobilisations, accompanied by a significant rise in mobilisation initiatives in defence of democracy.
The 2026 Democracy Report provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges currently facing democracies in different regions of the world, bringing together contributions from researchers at the V-Dem Institute and experts associated with its international network.
About the Democracy Report 2026
The Democracy Report 2026 was authored by Marina Nord, David Altman, Tiago Fernandes, Ana Good God and Staffan I. Lindberg. The report presents a global assessment of the state of democracy, drawing on the V-Dem database, which is currently one of the most comprehensive sources of comparative information on political regimes and democratic quality.