Promoting Illiberalism: International Organizations and Democratic Backslide

• In Event: Debating Causes of Democratization Failures

Abstract

Democracy promotion by international organizations (IOs) has been on the rise since the end of the Cold War. However, this increased international emphasis on democracy has been accompanied by rampant illiberalism and a sharp increase in cases of democratic backslide---or, attacks against democratic institutions other than free and fair elections---in new democracies around the world. Existing theories of democracy, which tend to focus on structural pre-requisites for democracy and causes of democratic collapse, are unable to explain these trends. Why has democratic backslide been on the rise in an age of unprecedented international commitment to democracy promotion?

Drawing on institutional theories of democracy, this paper argues that, although IOs often serve as a critical initial impetus for states to transition to democracy, they also sow the seeds for future democratic erosion and backslide. IOs inadvertently promote democratic backslide in new democracies by decreasing the domestic policy space, which stunts the development of institutions, and by imbuing executives with excessive and disproportionate power vis-à-vis other institutions. Without a genuine and meaningful domestic policy space, state institutions, which are under-developed in new democracies, remain weak, and the ability of leaders to govern and provide public goods is limited. Unable to appeal to voters based on records of effective governance and policy alternatives, executives manipulate already weak institutions to maintain their power, and turn to populist appeals to win elections; in other words, executives engage in democratic backslide.

Commonly used regime indicators focus predominantly on electoral measures of democracy, but do not incorporate other democratic institutions eroded or altered in cases of democratic backslide. Therefore, this paper develops an original latent variable based cross-national indicator of democratic backslide, called the Democratic Institutional Strength (DIS) index. The index is combined with novel data that characterizes IOs by the types of democracy promotion they conduct, and existing data measuring domestic institutions and executive power. Using these data, I test and find support for the proposed argument linking IOs and democratic backslide in new democracies. This paper contributes to nascent theories of democratic backslide and to research on international organizations and regime outcomes. Furthermore, by highlighting the institutional pre-requisites for democracy to succeed, this paper offers an approach for understanding the sources of contemporary challenges to liberal democracy.

Author

• Anna M. Meyerrose, The Ohio State University