Democracy is on the defensive. This is shown by the Bertelsmann Stiftung's Transformation Index 2026 (BTI). The BTI was first surveyed twenty years ago, when democracies were still in the majority. Today, 56 percent of the 137 countries surveyed by the BTI are ruled autocratically. However, this rarely leads to better governance. Autocracies are more susceptible to corruption, less capable of shaping the future, and less consensus-oriented. However, examples such as Poland and Brazil show that social resistance and political competition can pave the way back to democracy.