The Structural Sources of Democratic Backsliding, 1960-2022

• In Event: Democratic Backsliding and the Erosion of Human Rights (Co-sponsored by Political Sociology Section)

Abstract

Countries around the world are experiencing democratic backsliding. Current explanations of these phenomena emphasize the role of domestic political polarization and right-wing populist leaders. This analysis offers a global institutional theory of democratic backsliding. I argue that autocracies foster additional or support existing like-minded governments as it contributes to their own survival. The concomitant authoritarian, illiberal world cultural models diffusing from such actions have gained legitimacy with the cultural authoritative decline of (neo-) liberalism following the 2008 Great Recession, with dramatic consequences for democracy worldwide. Results from fixed effects panel regression models provide empirical support for the proposed theory, where numerous illiberal world society measures are consistently associated with decreased electoral democracy index scores. Additional tests suggest that the harmful effect of specific illiberal world society measures on democracy is more than double that of political polarization and becomes stronger in the post-liberal era of world society.

Author

• Steven Mejia, Washington State University