When I hear generalizations about the entire planet, I sometimes think of Hamlet’s admonition to Horatio- “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
That said, this particular morsel of conventional wisdom is not devoid of statistical evidence, since it is based on data about political rights and civil liberties compiled by Freedom House over nine years. Jay Ulfelder, however, uses Freedom House’s own data to argue that democracy has not been discarded.