The response to Covid-19 in both democratic countries (adopting tactics of totalitarian nations) and autocracies (ignoring the scope of the problem) posed a grave threat to life and liberty. Are we slouching towards a new authoritarian dawn? Or was the pandemic response an aberration that has corrected itself already? There are no easy answers to these questions but it is apparent that the pandemic was an inflection point for both the West and rogue nations around the world. This editorial gives an overview of the key points surrounding the democratic backsliding globally as a result of the pandemic and introduces the articles in this thematic issue.