Tools and Policies of Democratic Backsliding:
According to watchdog groups, fewer than 12% of the world’s population now lives in liberal democracies—the lowest percentage in 50 years. In large part this is due to democratic backsliding: the process by which democratic states become more autocratic due to their government’s repressive actions. But what are the specific policy tools that autocratizing regimes use to undermine democratic norms, neuter institutional checks and balances, and restrict the rights and political voice of their populations? This course delves into these specific methods, via a global comparative look at democratic backsliding in a variety of foreign countries.
The course starts with a primer on the nature of liberal democracy and its characteristics. It then explores the typology of regimes that result from democratic backsliding, and the ways in which we can measure the decline (or increase) in democracy. The bulk of the course then investigates the specific types of policy levers used by autocratizing regimes when attempting to hollow out their democracies from within. These include rigging electoral rules, neutralizing the free press, undermining the judiciary, declaring national emergencies, attacking universities, using referenda, and harassing civil society, among others. The course draws on examples from around the world: Russia, India, Hungary, Turkey, Venezuela, Israel, Poland, Brazil, etc.
The course is run as a seminar, with a relatively heavy reading load for each of the weekly class sessions. Throughout the semester, students will each give an oral presentation on an organization that is fighting democratic backsliding in a particular country; write a short paper comparing three states’ use of a similar policy instrument of autocratization; prepare a group policy memo to an international organization about democratic backsliding in one of its member states; and produce a final research paper.