Caught in the Middle: The Ambivalence of Governance Actors in an Era of Autocratization

Abstract

Across world regions, autocratization has increased in recent years, often accompanied by shrinking civic space and mounting constraints on public institutions. This panel brings together four empirically grounded papers to examine a) how actors and instruments commonly linked to democracy promotion and good governance, including development cooperation, civil society activism, and public bureaucracies, operate under conditions of democratic erosion in contemporary authoritarian and hybrid regimes, and b) and how democracies are challenged from within by transnational networks promoting anti-democratic ideas. Taken together, the panel advances a coherent agenda on the political ambivalence of governance actors in contexts of autocratization. It shows how external donors, domestic civil society organizations, and state bureaucracies are embedded in complex constellations of political constraints, institutional incentives, and unintended effects. In addition, it also foregrounds the perspective of the international diffusion of anti-democratic projects emerging from within established democracies. Bringing together insights from development studies, comparative authoritarianism, and public administration, the panel contributes to a more differentiated understanding of how democratic and anti-democratic practices are adapted, instrumentalized, and diffused in an era of global democratic decline. Furthermore, by juxtaposing democracy-supporting practices with organized efforts at autocracy promotion from within, the panel highlights the increasingly transnational and interactive character of contemporary democratic contestation.

Title	Details
Guardians or Enablers? Bureaucratic Roles in Democratic Erosion: The Case of Peru	View Paper Details
Scrutinizing Citizen Election Observation: The Toxic Cocktail of USAID Closure and Shrinking Civic Space	View Paper Details
Navigating Authoritarian Contexts: Unintended Consequences of Development Cooperation in the Middle East and North Africa	View Paper Details
Autocracy Promotion from Within Democracies: Sub-National Forums of Anti-Democratic Engagement	View Paper Details