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Why have most African countries not achieved greater political liberalization? What explains the lack of progress toward the ideals of liberal democracy across the region? This book advances ongoing debates on democratic backsliding with specific reference to Africa. In examining how incumbent leaders in African countries attempt to contain societal pressures for greater democracy, the chapters explain how governments go beyond the standard tools of manipulation, such as electoral fraud and political violence, to keep democracy from unfolding in their countries. The book emphasizes two distinct strategies that governments frequently use to reinforce their hold on power, but which remain overlooked in conventional analyses; —the legal system and the international system. It—documents how governments employ the law to limit the scope of action among citizens and civil society activists struggling to expand democratic liberties, including the use of constitutional provisions and the courts. The work further demonstrates how governments use their role in international relations to neutralize pressure from external actors, including sovereigntist claims against foreign intervention and selective implementation of donor-promoted policies. While pro-democracy actors can also employ these legal and international strategies to challenge incumbents, in some cases to prevent democratic backsliding, the book shows why and how incumbents have enjoyed institutional advantages when implementing these strategies through the six country case studies of Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

For the past decade and a half, the world has witnessed a precipitous decline of democratic countries and the consequent rise of autocrats. How Autocrats Rise: Sequences of Democratic Backsliding challenges the conventional wisdom and offers an institutional-ideological approach to understand the phenomenon, examines the steps of emergent autocrats, and analyzes the methods of legitimizing their rules. Employing the new framework, the book provides incisive analyses of four countries located in four different regions with dissimilar national features – Bangladesh, Bolivia, Hungary, and Turkey, and demonstrates that political developments in these countries have followed a similar, specific pattern resulting in various shades of autocracy. Theoretically enriched and empirically grounded, this exceptionally timely book makes significant contribution to the democratic backsliding literature while offering insights on how to forestall an autocratic era. Ali Riaz is a Distinguished Professor of political science at Illinois State University, USA, a Non-resident Senior Fellow of Atlantic Council, and the President of the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies. Riaz previously taught at universities in Bangladesh, England, and South Carolina, USA, worked as a Broadcast Journalist at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London, and served as a Visiting Researcher at the Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem) at Gothenburg University in Sweden and as a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at Washington D.C. Md Sohel Rana is an Associate Instructor of Political Science and a PhD student at Indiana University, USA. He earned his Master of Science (M.S.) in Political Science from Illinois State University, USA. His research interests include democratic and authoritarian politics and South Asian politics. His recent publications include "Democracy Deficit in the D-8" (with Ali Riaz) in Ahmed M Khalid et al. eds. Economic Integration Among D-8 Muslim Countries (2023), and "The God Gap? Public Perception on Religion-Politics Mix in South Asia" in Ali Riaz ed. Religion and Politics in South Asia (2nd ed., 2021)

This book advances ongoing debates on democratic backsliding and autocratization with specific reference to Africa. It offers a carefully developed theoretical framework and, unlike many previous studies, adds an international dimension to the analyses of autocratization processes on the continent.

This volume advances ongoing debates on democratic backsliding and autocratization with specific reference to Africa. It offers a carefully developed theoretical framework and, unlike many previous studies, adds an international dimension to the analyses of autocratization processes on the continent.

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction: Venezuela-Dimensions of the Crisis -- History and Theory -- Can an Evolutionary Order Be Schizophrenic? Reading Venezuelan Politics from an Institutionalist Perspective -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 The Problem of Social Order -- 1.2 Changes in the Institutional Setting -- 1.3 Predatory Normativity -- 2 Conclusions -- References -- Ideological Aspects of Venezuela's Current Divide -- 1 Political Ideologies and Languages -- 2 Ideological Conflicts in Venezuelan History -- 3 Opposed Ideological Outlooks in Current Venezuela -- 4 Conclusions -- References -- The Quest for Democracy: Venezuela in the Twentieth and Twentyfirst Centuries -- 1 Introduction -- 2 On the Way to Modernity -- 3 On the Road to Democracy -- 4 On the Way to the Crisis -- 5 Economic Crisis and Attempts of Reform -- 6 Political Crisis -- 7 The Rise of Hugo Chávez -- 8 Democratic Backsliding Under Chávez and Maduro -- 9 Conclusions -- Bibliography -- Domestic Dimensions of The Crisis: Actors, Parties and Problems -- Multiple Crises of the Venezuelan Party System -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Chavismo: Hindering Representation -- 2.1 Incentivizing an Anti-party Culture -- 2.2 Removing Public Funds for Political Parties -- 2.3 Control Over the Electoral Management Body -- 2.4 Manipulating Electoral Rules -- 2.5 Banning and Party Intervention -- 2.6 Disqualification of Candidates -- 2.7 Bribery of Candidates -- 2.8 Distrust Among Opponents -- 2.9 Harassment of Opposition Leaders, Party Militants, and Sympathizers -- 3 Conclusions -- Appendix -- Methodological Annex -- References -- Discretionality and Disarticulation in the Venezuelan Public Administration -- 1 Epistemological Assumptions, Theoretical Justifications, and Methodological Guide -- 1.1 Epistemological Framework -- 1.2 Theoretical Corpus -- 1.3 Methodological Approach.

Chapter 1. Introduction: Venezuela – Dimensions of the Crisis -- Part I. History and Theory -- Chapter 2. Can an Evolutionary Order be schizophrenic? Reading Venezuelan politics from an institutionalist perspective -- Chapter 3. Ideological aspects of Venezuela's current divide -- Chapter 4. Venezuela between Democracy and Autocracy: History and Politics in the 20th and 21st centuries -- Part II. Domestic Dimensions of The Crisis: Actors, Parties and Problems -- Chapter 5. Multiple Crises of the Venezuelan Party System -- Chapter 6. Discretionality and Disarticulation in the Venezuelan Public Administration -- Chapter 7. The Military Factor -- Part III. International and Regional Dimensions of the Crisis -- Chapter 8. The Role of the EU in the Venezuelan conflict: Why did democracy promotion fail? -- Chapter 9. From Monroe to Bolívar and back? US-Venezuela Relations -- Chapter 10. Venezuela, Cuba and United States: Power and Geopolitics in the Great Caribbean -- Chapter 11. Difficult but necessary: Venezuela-Colombia relations throughout time. A historical depiction of two specially connected neighbors -- Chapter 12. Conclusion: Dimensions of The Crisis and Future Prospects.

The book is devoted to the subject of Venezuela's politics and the different dimensions of its longstanding crisis, with various researchers exchanging ideas on the current problems affecting the country. It is the first comprehensive overview on the dimensions of Venezuela's current crisis written in English, thus filling an important research gap. Especially the participation of international, well-known scholars make it a global enterprise. The book covers historical and theoretical facts surrounding the case of Venezuela and also focuses on the parties and actors that play decisive roles in the conflict. Subjects include the military, public administration, ideology, the opposition, the party landscape along with its crisis and Venezuela's oil policy. Furthermore the book touches upon international and regional aspects: Venezuela's diplomatic relations with the EU, the USA, Cuba and Colombia, respectively. The volume addresses a wider audience, such as scholars on Latin American and especially Venezuelan Politics, International Relations, as well as an interested public, including journalists and politicians. .

"The book provides analysis of causes of democratic backsliding in Poland. The authors propose to take a closer look at historical and identity aspects, economic factors, social and political polarization, institutions, parties and role of external factors (e.g. European Union) - as issues strongly contributing to this process"--

Liberal democracy is at risk. Its hallmark institutions - political pluralism, separation of powers, and rule of law-are coming under pressure, as authoritarian sentiment is growing around the globe. While liberal-democratic backsliding features prominently in social science scholarship, especially the branches concerned with political parties and political behavior, public administration research lags behind. However, without considering illiberal approaches towards the executive, efforts of actual and aspiring authoritarians remain only partly understood. State bureaucracies are, after all, important instruments of power. This timely and important volume addresses the administrative implications of liberal-democratic backsliding. It studies public administrations as objects and subjects in the context of illiberal dynamics. For this purpose, the volume brings together an international group of scholars to analyze authoritarian tendencies in several countries. The contributions combine theoretical with empirical work, providing the first comparative perspective on an overlooked aspect of one of the most important contemporary political trends.

The book provides analysis of causes of democratic backsliding in Poland. The authors propose to take a closer look at historical and identity aspects, economic factors, social and political polarization, institutions, parties and role of external factors (e.g. European Union) - as issues strongly contributing to this process.

"Populism challenges our democracies. And populists in governments attempt to transform public administration systems in manifold illiberal ways. This chapter outlines an analytical frame for systematic comparative research on determining how populists attempt to convert public bureaucracies, what are their motivations, what are their chances to succeed. It bridges between different strands of scholarship, which have remained rather insulated so far. It complements the debate on system transformation and democracy systematically with administrative aspects. The chapter thus offers a path to integrate public administration scholarship in system transformation research by eliciting the role of bureaucracies in reform projects of populist governments"--

Assaults on democracy are increasingly coming from the actions of duly elected governments, rather than coups. Backsliding examines the processes through which elected rulers weaken checks on executive power, curtail political and civil liberties, and undermine the integrity of the electoral system. Drawing on detailed case studies, including the United States and countries in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Africa, the book focuses on three, inter-related causal mechanisms: the pernicious effects of polarization; realignments of party systems that enable elected autocrats to gain legislative power; and the incremental nature of derogations, which divides oppositions and keeps them off balance. A concluding chapter looks at the international context of backsliding and the role of new technologies in these processes. An online appendix provides detailed accounts of backsliding in 16 countries, which can be found at www.cambridge.org/backsliding.

"In the past two decades, democratically elected executives across the world have used their popularity to push for legislation that, over time, destroys systems of checks and balances, hinders free and fair elections, and undermines political rights and civil liberties. Using and abusing institutions and institutional reform, some executives have transformed their countries' democracies into competitive authoritarian regimes. Others, however, have failed to erode democracy. What explains these different outcomes? Resisting Backsliding answers this question. With a focus on the cases of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and Alvaro Uribe in Colombia, the book shows that the strategies and goals of the opposition are key to understanding why some executives successfully erode democracy and others do not. By highlighting the role of the opposition, this book emphasizes the importance of agency for understanding democratic backsliding and shows that even weak oppositions can defeat strong potential autocrats"--