What happens after Democratic Erosion? Analyzing Post-Erosion Trajectories of Democratic Reconstruction

Erosion of democracy or democratic backsliding has become a major concern, for policymakers as well as for scholars. While current work in the field concentrates to explore this distinct path of regime transformation, research is confronted with a new puzzle not yet tackled: what happens after democratic erosion? Actually, we can observe some cases where illiberal incumbents are voted out - like it happened in Brazil with Bolsonaro or in Poland with the PiS party. However, the halting of democratic erosion alone is not sufficient to restore a functioning liberal democracy. Democratic reconstruction constitutes a complex and multidimensional endeavor: undoing a range of undermined institutions and principles, rebuilding democratic procedures, but also install guardrails for avoiding a new erosion episode. What post-erosion trajectories are possible? And: under what conditions can a successful return to democracy occur, or why would it fail?
This panel invites conceptual paper as well as case studies or comparative work on countries that experienced a halt of democratic erosion.