We’ve seen plenty of countries fighting for more democracy in the 21st century, but as the Economist explains, these movements haven’t been going that well in the past decade. The story often plays out something like this: “The people mass in the main square. Regime-sanctioned thugs try to fight back but lose their nerve in the face of popular intransigence and global news coverage. The world applauds the collapse of the regime and offers to help build a democracy. But turfing out an autocrat turns out to be much easier than setting up a viable democratic government. The new regime stumbles, the economy flounders and the country finds itself in a state at least as bad as it was before.”

+ An interactive world map: Democracy at a standstill.