Creeping Authoritarianism: How Would-Be Autocrats Subvert Democracy

Session Submission Type: Virtual Full Paper Panel

Session Description

As the list of countries experiencing democratic erosion is rapidly expanding, we still know very little about when and how democratic erosion occurs. However, there is much we can learn from both early cases of democratic erosion as well as from more recent backsliding of advanced democracies, such as the United States. This panel brings together scholars who study backsliding in both consolidated and unconsolidated democracies using a plurality of methodological approaches including formal theory, analysis of original quantitative data, and computational text analysis. Authors explore both macro- and micro-mechanisms and causes of democratic backsliding that have enabled authoritarian encroachments by would-be autocrats around the world.

Luo and Przeworski use a game-theoretical model to explore the conditions under which the citizens are willing to support the gradual steps towards democratic erosion. Stokes, Uribe and Cinar focus on what the rhetoric of democratic backsliders prior to coming to office reveals about their intentions. Helmke, Paine and Kroeger model the conditions under which politicians turn to or forgo using anti-democratic tactics to win elections. Finally, Olimpieva looks at how strategic personnel shuffling in the judiciaries enables unraveling of democratic institutions and the entrenchment of authoritarian power.

Sub Unit

• Division 44: Democracy and Autocracy

Individual Presentations

• Democracy and Its Vulnerabilities: Dynamics of Democratic Backsliding - Zhaotian Luo, University of Chicago; Adam Przeworski, New York University

• Democracy by Deterrence: Modeling Mutual Forbearance in U.S. Electoral Politics - Gretchen Helmke, University of Rochester; Jack Paine, University of Rochester; Mary Kroeger, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

• Rhetorical Stratagems of Democratic Backsliders - Ipek Cinar, University of Chicago; Andres Uribe, University of Chicago; Susan C. Stokes, University of Chicago

• Putin’s Prosecutors: How Judiciaries Enable Creeping Authoritarianism - Evgenia Olimpieva, University of Chicago

Chair

• Dan Slater University of Michigan

Discussants

• Steven Levitsky Harvard University

• Georg Vanberg Duke University