Over the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic drop in the quality of government and quality of democracy in the United States, a report from the Berggruen Institute finds.

Compiled by researchers from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Hertie School in Berlin, the report, the 2022 Berggruen Governance Index (103 pages, PDF), draws on data from 2000 through 2019 to analyze the quality of democracy, of government, and of life for 134 countries around the world. While the U.S. score for quality of government remains far above the global average, its decline on that measure since 2000 was one of the world’s largest, on par with declines in Haiti, Hong Kong, and Hungary. The report also found that quality of democracy scores fell in several Asian nations, including Bangladesh, China, India, the Philippines, and Thailand and that many nations in the Americas also saw declines in those measures. In addition, the report found that while Africa as a whole still ranks well below other regions in terms of quality of life factors, the 10 countries with the greatest improvements in quality of life measures are all in Africa.

“This index is a much-needed tool for policy makers and policy analysts to grasp how governance relates to social and economic progress in various political contexts,” said Berggruen Institute executive vice president Dawn Nakagawa. “A better understanding of these relationships is particularly relevant as liberal democracies face increasing foreign and domestic threats from autocracy.”

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