Theories of Democratic Backsliding

We review recent contributions to the modeling of democratic backsliding. We organize these theories according to ( a ) the source of constraints on the executive (vertical or horizontal restrainers) and ( b ) the target of backsliding (electoral manipulation or executive aggrandizement), and then u...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAnnual review of political science Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 381 - 400
Main Authors Grillo, Edoardo, Luo, Zhaotian, Nalepa, Monika, Prato, Carlo
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 29.07.2024
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Summary:We review recent contributions to the modeling of democratic backsliding. We organize these theories according to ( a ) the source of constraints on the executive (vertical or horizontal restrainers) and ( b ) the target of backsliding (electoral manipulation or executive aggrandizement), and then use these concepts to build a scaffold for a meta-model of democratic backsliding. This meta-model allows us to describe and compare the premises and insights of this scholarship. We further apply our two-dimensional classification to more than 30 empirical papers and show how these theories can guide research design. We conclude by highlighting open issues for future research.
ISSN:1094-2939
1545-1577
DOI:10.1146/annurev-polisci-041322-025352