A democratic government is a system where power is given to the people, who can freely elect representatives to voice their concerns. It wasn’t as widespread as it is now.The article suggests that democracy has declined and have plateaued. After 1984, it seemed that the entire world was beginning to become more free but now it has plateaued. Only 46 percent of 195 countries was completely free and 28 percent was partly free. The other 26 percent is not free at all.The percentage of free countries in the Middle East is the lowest in the world with 13 countries(72% of the Middle East and North Africa region) being not free.

There are many factors hurting the democratization of the world but the most notably is the rise of terrorism. The Middle East region have been in turmoil, since the Iraq War or even earlier, and has allowed it to be the best environment for terrorist organizations to rise. This caused a domino effect that have caused the refugee crisis and have been a major topic for the presidential race.

In places like Syria, there is an increase in refugee migration. It has caused a long civil war which resulted from president Bashar al-Assad refusing to step down in 2011.Even though the West pressured him to step down, he refused causing a war that have displaced millions of lives around the region. Another conflict is the continued Boko Haram ‘s violence for 7 years in Northern Nigeria. It has displaced 2.6 million people, including 1.4 million children, and left 2.2 million trapped in areas under their control. Starvation and disease are rampant. These two conflicts will take more years to resolve.

Democracy isn’t deeply rooted in many countries around the world and we, as Americans, should not take it for granted. Democracy isn’t always easily achieved and it has to be maintained so that it can become strong enough to protect its countries’ people and their interest. Implementing or maintaining democracy isn’t always the easiest road for a country to move toward. There is always a big sacrifice when fighting for democracy.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/01/28/report-democracy-in-decline

http://www.nytimes.com/ Article: Savaged by Boko Haram