Strategies of Democratic Resilience

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

As democratic backsliding is one of the major concerns of our current era (V-Dem 2021; Freedom House 2021), this roundtable evaluates the state of the field in political science literature and original research to discuss how, when, and why democratic backsliding can be arrested, avoided, or attenuated. Roundtable participants will cover a brief summary of the nature of the backsliding processes, and devote primary attention to how those distinct pathways, institutions, and actors relate to democratic resilience strategies.

A key focus will explore the importance of polarization, how this contributes to backsliding as well as strategies for resilience, and examine the differences between cultural and economic dimensions of polarization, and how these dimensions are related to both ideological and affective forms of polarization. Presenters will also focus on how institutions function – or dysfunction – in the process of democratic backsliding and what opportunities those present for democratic resilience, at both national and subnational levels. This includes courts, legislative bodies, electoral institutions, and bureaucracies.

The cross-regional perspectives will explore the dilemmas democratic oppositions face in confronting backsliding, and how pro-democracy actors counteract backsliding logics within the context of varied degrees of polarization and institutional embeddedness. The roundtable will debate strategies and arenas where pro-democracy forces are fighting back to keep democratic spaces open, or to reopen closed or restricted spaces either while an eroder is in office or after they have been removed. Contexts will include both decreasing polarization (as intervention) efforts and efforts designed to strengthen institutions at both the national and subnational level as bulwarks or guardrails against backsliding.
Chair (Jennifer McCoy) and 2 panelists (Rachel Riedl, Ken Roberts), will discuss the state of field, original research on polarization and democratic resilience, and opposition coalition strategies, and cross-regional analysis. 4 panelists will cover case study examples: Tunisia (Alex Blackman), Hungary (Zsolt Enyedi), Malawi (Kim Yi Dionne)), and Turkey (Murat Somer)

Sub Unit

• Division 44: Democracy and Autocracy

Chair

• Jennifer McCoy Georgia State University

Presenters

• Murat Somer Ozyegin University Istanbul

• Rachel Beatty Riedl Cornell University

• Kim Yi Dionne University of California, Riverside

• Kenneth M. Roberts Cornell University

• Zsolt Enyedi Central European University

• Alexandra Domike Blackman Cornell University