A Party Politics Perspective on Contemporary Forms of Democratic Backsliding and Autocratization

Abstract

The subtle forms of regime change from democracy to authoritarianism have led to a growing literature on how regimes regress down below the democratic threshold through- sometimes sequential- processes of democratic backsliding (Bermeo 2016) and autocratization (Cassani and Tomini 2018). The regimes that form as a culmination of these subtle processes are conceptualized as electoral/competitive authoritarian regimes which mimic democratic regimes in their institutional structure while twisting the integrity of electoral process to the point that elections become real yet unfair (Schedler 2013; Levitsky and Way 2010). Originally proposed as a post-Cold War phenomenon, competitive authoritarianism remained persistent in 21th century as a hybrid regime type (Levitsky and Way 2020). As a culmination of subtle processes of democratic backsliding and autocratization, many countries such as Hungary, Turkey, and Serbia are currently classified as competitive authoritarian. Other countries such as Poland, while remaining democratic, has been under a rapid process of democratic backsliding and may cross the thin line between electoral democracy and competitive authoritarianism in the future. This panel aims to shed light to the inner workings of the recent cases of democratic backsliding and autocratization through a party politics perspective. Moreover, we aim to problematize the conceptual toolbox of party politics literature within the regime level contexts of democratic backsliding and autocratization. We are looking for papers that can both theoretically and empirically contribute to our understanding of political parties and dynamics of party competition both within the distinct regime type of competitive authoritarianism and processes of democratic backsliding and autocratization. Far from being exhaustive, some of the questions that this panel will seek answers are: How can we revise our existing conceptual toolbox- which are to a large extent developed on the empirical contexts of democratic and/or democratizing regimes- to have a better understanding of party politics under democratic backsliding and autocratization? How distinct political/functional logic of competitive authoritarianism affects the organizational features of both incumbent and opposition parties? What are the dynamics of party (system) (de) institutionalization under processes of democratic backsliding and autocratization? How party organizations evolve under democratic backsliding and autocratization? What is the relationship between party system and incumbent/opposition party institutionalization under CA regimes? There is no limitation on methodological approach. Both comparative and single case studies and both qualitative and quantitative studies are welcomed.

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