I’ve been covering the annual democracy index produced by EIU, our sister organisation, since I moved across from EIU to the newspaper in 2015. That year, it turns out, was “peak democracy” for the 167 countries in the index. It has been pretty much downhill ever since, with coups, covid and contested elections dragging down the global average.

Over the past year things may have turned a corner—thanks, in part, to Donald Trump. Denmark’s score increased after its government deftly handled his threats to take over Greenland. Canada improved too: it avoided becoming America’s 51st state, and Mr Trump’s support for Conservative Pierre Poilievre in its general election boosted turnout—for the other guy. Last weekend Hungary’s authoritarian leader, Viktor Orban, suffered electoral defeat after a ringing endorsement from Mr Trump. Who would have thought that America’s populist president could do so much good for democracy abroad?