Back to overview
The Summit for Democracy commitments are out—now what?
Norman Eisen, Mario Picon, Robin J. Lewis, Renzo Falla and Lilly Blumenthal published on the Brookings Institution website an initial reaction to the recently-published Commitments for the Summit. The authors observed significant variation in the commitments made. When considering the written commitments in terms of where governments fall in the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index 2021, there is a disproportionate number of commitments from countries already classified as full democracies. The nature of the commitments also varies, with some countries making domestically-targeted commitments, but many, especially full democracies, focussing on the international. The commitments made by some countries are very specific, while others are only broad objectives or intentions, affecting how effectively key stakeholders can monitor and assess progress towards stated goals. The authors state that without meaningful reform and engagement with society, commitments will remain aspirational.