Barbara Pisciotta
Barbara Pisciotta and Daniela Verena Huber explore how populism fuels societal divisions and provides fertile ground for democratic backsliding. This allows populist leaders to increase their own power at the expense of the opposition Read more
Licia Cianetti
Licia Cianetti and Petra Alderman critique the trend for claiming that a 'global' autocratisation is sweeping the world. It is, they argue, not a homogenous process, but many processes that look differently across time and space. Just as we need to better differentiate autocracies, so we also need better language to reflect these differences in autocratisation Read more
Didem Unal Abaday
In Turkey, LGBTI+ events and pressures on queer people’s right to assembly face increasing restrictions. This, writes Didem Unal Abaday, will only get worse with democratic decline. In the new parliamentary term after the 2023 elections, democratic backsliding is turning political homophobia into state policy Read more
Jaap Hoeksma
The European Commission's intervention in the Polish crisis concerning the Lex Tusk is most welcome, writes Jaap Hoeksma. To be credible, however, the EU must also have its own house in order Read more
Daniela Donno
Gender-washing regimes pay lip service to liberal norms, but reforms tend to be top-down and symbolic. To advance women’s rights, we need to pay attention to the question of how de jure legal rights can be effectively claimed and experienced by women, according to Daniela Donno Read more
Tejendra Pratap Gautam
The recent victory of the Congress party in the southern state of Karnataka is a step towards the reversal of India's democratic backsliding, writes Tejendra Pratap Gautam Read more
Elin Bjarnegård
Gender and authoritarianism are interconnected – but in different and unexpected ways. Elin Bjarnegård and Pär Zetterberg think the relationship between them deserves more attention in political science. Here, they expose the relationship in terms of two autocrat strategies: genderwashing and genderbashing Read more
Justin Kempf
Many political scientists have analysed democratic backsliding. Justin Kempf shows how some are helping activists refine their strategies and tactics to challenge autocrats and the basis of their rule. This provides an example of how political science can do much more than just conducting analysis and providing simple diagnoses Read more
