Democracy is on a downward trajectory, but it is still winning across the globe

It is bad manners to pre-empt the Financial Times's annual prize for individual achievement, but the Person of 2024 will be "the voter". Among the democracies that are due to choose a national government this year are the world's largest (India) and mightiest (the US), as well as the one that fancies itself the most established (Britain). In elections elsewhere, the stakes range from the municipal (Brazil) to the pan-continental (the European Parliament). The people of Taiwan and conceivably even Ukraine, those front lines of the free world, will also exercise their right to decide who leads them. Even if…