Contributor(s): Dr Jonathan Hopkin, Dr Brian Klass, Professor Tomila Lankina | Welcome to LSE IQ, a monthly podcast from the London School of Economics and Political Science. This is the podcast where we ask some of the leading social scientists - and other experts - to answer intelligent questions about economics, politics or society. Earlier this year, the independent watchdog organisation Freedom House published a report cautioning that, in 2017, democracy had faced its most serious crisis in decades. In this episode, Jess Winterstein asks what might lie behind this decline in global freedom and what the future might hold for democracy. This episode features: Dr Jonathan Hopkin, Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, LSE Department of Government and co-director of Democratic Audit; Dr Brian Klass, a Fellow in Comparative Politics at LSE’s Department of Government; and Professor Tomila Lankina, LSE Department of International Relations and lead of the Political Mobilisation and Democracy project. For further information about the podcast visit lse.ac.uk/iq and please tell us what you think using the hashtag #LSEIQ.