A surprising number of elections and political transitions is scheduled tooccur over the coming months. An incomplete list includes Russia, China,France, the United States, Egypt,Mexico, and South Korea.

At first glance, these countries have little in common. Some arewell-established democracies; some are authoritarian systems; and others aresomewhere in between. Yet, for all of their differences, these governments –and the individuals who will lead them – face many of the same challenges.Three stand out.

The first is that no country is entirely its own master. In today’s world, no country enjoys total autonomy orindependence. To one degree or another, all depend on access to foreign marketsto sell their manufactured goods, agricultural products, resources, or services– or to supply them. None can eliminate economic competition with others overaccess to third-country markets. Many countries require capital inflows tofinance investment or official debt. Global supply and demand largely set oiland gas prices. Economic interdependence and the vulnerability associated withit is an inescapable fact of contemporary life.

But economic dependence on others is not the only international realitywith which governments must contend. It is equally difficult – if notimpossible – for countries to isolate themselves from terrorism, weapons,pandemic disease, or climate change.

After all, borders are not impermeable. On the contrary, globalization –the immense flow across borders of people, ideas, greenhouse gases, goods,services, currencies, commodities, television and radio signals, drugs,weapons, emails, viruses (computer and biological), and a good deal else – is adefining reality of our time. Few of the challenges that it raises can be metunilaterally; more often than not, cooperation, compromise, and a degree ofmultilateralism are essential.

A second universal challenge is technology. George Orwell’s vision of1984 could hardly have been more wrong, because the hallmark of moderntechnology is not Big Brother, but decentralization. More computing power cannow be held on a desktop or in a person’s hand than could be gathered in a roomonly a generation ago.  

As a result, people everywhere now have more access to more sources ofinformation than ever before. making itincreasingly difficult for governments to control, much less monopolize, theflow of knowledge. Citizens also have a growing ability through mobile phonesand social networking to communicate directly and discreetlywith one another.  

One consequence of this trend is that authoritarian governments can nolonger wield control over their citizens as easily as they once did. Technologyis, no doubt, one explanation for the uprisings that we are seeing in much ofthe Arab world. But modern technology also has implications forwell-established democracies. It is far more difficult to generate socialconsensus and to govern in a world in which citizens can choose what they read,watch, and listen to, and with whom they talk.

A third widespread challenge that awaits emerging leadersis the inescapable reality that citizens’ demands increasingly overwhelm thecapacity to satisfy them. This was alwaystrue in the so-called developing (and often relatively poor) world. But now itis also the case in the relatively well-off mature democracies, as well asamong those countries that have been growing fastest.

Economic growth is slower in many cases than the historic norm. This isreadily apparent for much of Europe, Japan,and the US.But growth is also slowing in Chinaand India,which together account for more than one-third of the world’s population.Unemployment rates are high, especially in the USand Western Europe, and especially among theyoung and those nearing the end of their careers (but who are still expected tolive for decades). More worrying still, much of this will translate intolong-term unemployment.

The net result of these economic and demographic shifts is that a growingshare of national income is now being directed to provide health, pensions, andother forms of basic support, while a declining percentage of citizens innearly every society is now working to support a growing number of fellowcitizens. This rising dependency ratio is made worse by widening economicinequality; as more wealth is concentrated in fewer hands, the promise ofever-improving standards of living for most people may not be fulfilled.

Together, these three trends – a loss of economic and physical autonomy,the diffusion of information technology, and slower growth against a backdropof larger and older populations – will create enormous political challenges invirtually every country. Demands are mounting at the same time as the ability ofgovernments to satisfy them is diminishing. The leaders who will take powerafter this year’s transitions will confront this fundamental reality.

Leaders will also have to confront the byproducts of increasednationalism, populism, and, in some cases, extremism. Hostility to immigrationand economic protectionism, already visible, can be projected to increase.

These developments within countries will make more difficult the challengeof generating global consensus on how to meet threats beyond borders: asgoverning successfully at home becomes more difficult, so will governingabroad. For citizens and leaders alike, tough times lie ahead.