How resilient are democracies, really? While many countries have gone from democratic to authoritarian and back again, few have been able to sustain their recovery. In the new issue of the Journal of Democracy, Matías Bianchi, Nic Cheeseman, and Jennifer Cyr explain why it is so difficult to restore liberal democracy after bouts of authoritarianism.
Democratic backsliding has been on the rise in recent decades. The following Journal of Democracy essays offer strategies for defending and deepening democracy around the world.
The Myth of Democratic Resilience
We must face an uncomfortable truth: Democracies often fail to reverse the damage after an authoritarian lapse, if they manage to recover at all. If we are to make our political systems more resilient, we must steel democracy against authoritarianism before it is too late.
Matías Bianchi, Nic Cheeseman, and Jennifer CyrDemocracy After Illiberalism: A Warning from Poland
Restoring liberalism after illiberalism is no easy task: Leaders face hard choices between acting quickly and effectively while maintaining a commitment to democratic procedure. Worse, their illiberal opponents stand to benefit either way.
Stanley Bill and Ben StanleyThe Authoritarian Origins of the Third Wave
The “third wave” of democracy started in 1974 — or so the story goes. But the crests and crashes of waves of democracy and authoritarianism have been neglected. A close look can help us understand the current moment, when democracy appears to be in retreat.
Dan SlaterThe Third Wave’s Lessons for Democracy
When the “third wave” reached Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s, it brought major advances for democracy. By the first decade of the current century, however, advances had given way to stasis and even erosion.
Scott MainwaringThe Return of Dictatorship
Alongside democratic backsliding is another, more pernicious phenomenon: dictatorial drift, where “soft” authoritarian regimes are opting to become highly repressive dictatorships. The West must develop new strategies to defend democracy across the globe.
Grzegorz Ekiert and Noah DasanaikeThe Anatomy of Democratic Backsliding
Can we recognize the symptoms of backsliding before it’s too late? Though the signals are sometimes faint, a new study of sixteen cases around the world reveals key dynamics common to all.
Stephan Haggard and Robert KaufmanThe Fates of Third-Wave Democracies
Since their transitions, the democracies of the “third wave” have followed a range of trajectories beyond simple survival or breakdown. Many have stagnated at low levels of democracy and some have suffered democratic erosion, but there also have been cases of democratic deepening against the odds.
Scott Mainwaring and Fernando Bizzarro
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