Democratic Resilience under Conditions of Backslide and Autocratization in Latin America and Asia

This project seeks to examine how democratic practices, norms, and forms of political contestation persist, adapt, or re-emerge under conditions of democratic erosion and autocratization. The project aims to build a cross-regional, interdisciplinary research consortium bringing together political science, historical sociology, and area studies to analyze when and how democratic decline can be slowed, redirected, or reversed. Rather than treating democracy and authoritarianism as fixed regime types, the project conceptualizes political systems as situated along dynamic trajectories of erosion, hybridization, and contestation. Ist central analytical focus is democratic resilience understood as an outcome and process: the capacity of political and societal actors, institutions, and normative frameworks to sustain meaningful participation, competition, and accountability under sustained authoritarian pressure. 

Aim of the project

Democratic governance worldwide is undergoing a profound transformation. Rather than abrupt breakdowns, recent decades have witnessed a global wave of autocratization characterized by gradual, legally mediated, and often electorally legitimated erosion of democratic norms and institutions. While many regimes retain formal elections and representative institutions, pluralism, civil liberties, and horizontal accountability are increasingly undermined. Existing research has focused predominantly on how democracies decline or collapse. Far less attention has been paid to how democratic practices survive, adapt, or re-emerge under adverse conditions. This project addresses this gap by asking: Under what conditions, and through which configurations of actors, institutions, and norms, do democratic practices demonstrate resilience in contexts of democratic erosion and autocratization? Democratic resilience is not assumed to be the norm, nor is opposition politics idealized. Instead, resilience is treated as contingent, uneven, and fragile, emerging from specific political struggles and institutional constellations. By examining cases across Asia and Latin America, with Turkey as a pivotal bridge case, the project seeks to generate theoretically grounded, empirically rich, and policy-relevant insights into contemporary democratic trajectories worldwide.

Project Duration

03/2026 – 12/2026