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Debating Causes of Democratization Failures

Sat, September 1, 8:00 to 9:30am, Marriott, Arlington

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel explores varied explanations for the failure of democratization efforts. Laura Maxwell, Richard Morgan, and Staffan I. Lindberg point to the difficulty of detecting democratization episodes, using V-Dem data to map sequences of democratization and its failure. In three subsequent papers, Anna Meyerrose, David Altman and Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, and Ellen Lust and David Waldner explore why and when democratization episodes result in democratic backsliding. Meyerrose emphasizes the role of international organizations, arguing that even as international organizations provide an impetus for democratization, they often sow the seeds for reversals. Altman and Pérez-Liñán turn attention instead to domestic conditions, focusing on the role of economic factors. They argue that economic growth can undermine competition, providing a perspective in contrast to prevailing literature, which emphasizes the role of economic crises. Finally, Lust and Waldner consider the role of party systems in democratization. Focusing on Arab transitions, they argue that the party system, more than economic factors or international linkages alone, explain why transitions resulted in autocratization in some cases but not others. Together, these papers bring to the fore the need to consider how regime transitioned to democracy in studies on backsliding.

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