Democratic Resilience and Resistance to Autocratization

The window of opportunity for global democratization that opened with the collapse of the Soviet empire after 1989/91 has long since closed. Since the 2010s, democracy indices such as V-Dem and Freedom House have reported continuous democratic regression and autocratization. Instead of improving the quality of democracy, the focus has shifted to democratic regression, decline, or crisis. But is democratic regression and autocratization inevitable? Whether these trends continue depends largely on the potential for democratic resilience of political regimes and the resistance to autocratization that political opposition and civil society can mobilize. The papers in this panel will provide examples and empirical evidence from different regions of the world. They will take stock of different actors, institutions and strategies for building democratic resilience and resisting autocratization, and critically assess their potential as well as their limitations.