Democracy Promotion in Times of Autocratization

This panel invites papers that examine the politics of external democracy promotion in the context of global autocratization and power competition. After decades of democratization, autocratization is underway worldwide. Authoritarian reversals can be observed in Central and Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans, Latin America, and North and Sub-Saharan Africa, and lack of democratic progress in the Middle East and Central Asia. Even among the economically prosperous G-20, numerous states have recently experienced democratic backsliding. Under these circumstances, established practices of democracy promotion are being challenged, and traditional democracy promoters need to adapt their strategies as they face competition from new and, in particular, autocratic actors. Contributions to this panel could explore how traditional democracy promoters are adapting their policies in the face of autocratization. They could also focus on the impact of the pluralization of actors in the international politics of democracy promotion, such as emerging democracies that are pursuing new and innovative ways of promoting democracy, but also autocratic powers like Russia and China that are offering cooperation without conditionalities and challenging Western democracy promotion.