Two American political scientists argue that rich democracies have held up far better than the doomsayers claim, even as China and Russia give dictators a place to turn for backup — a cautiously hopeful read with a clear warning attached.

• Harvard's Steven Levitsky says the world is still more democratic than it was in 2000, and no wealthy democracy has fallen this century.
• His reason: economic development creates a middle class that does not depend on the government, which funds and organizes the opposition.
• Stanford's Larry Diamond is gloomier, calling the last 20 years a global democratic recession driven by bad leadership, economic upheaval, social media, and the rise of China and Russia.
• Venezuela is the cautionary case — citizen vote-counting showed the opposition won in 2024, but Maduro stayed because outside pressure was too weak and China, Russia, and Cuba backed him.
• Both warn that if free countries do not act as one bloc, the window to reverse the slide closes fast.

Outlook: Expect more authoritarian leaders to survive by leaning on Beijing and Moscow, while the democracies that keep their economies strong keep their politics stable.