Guardians or Enablers? Bureaucratic Roles in Democratic Erosion: The Case of Peru

Democracies worldwide are increasingly on the defensive as a general wave of autocratization unfolds. Within this dynamic, public bureaucracies have attracted growing scholarly attention. While some perspectives frame them as drivers of autocratic tendencies, others emphasize their potential as institutional bulwarks against democratic backsliding. What has become clear, however, is the persistent effort of autocratic leaders to assert control over bureaucratic institutions. This article addresses two core questions: (1) What roles can bureaucracies assume in contexts of autocratization? and (2) Under what conditions do public actors choose to adopt these roles? To explore these questions, the article reconstructs the political trajectory of Peru since 2010—a case marked by turbulence and a steady decline in democratic quality over the past decade. Drawing on secondary sources and semi-structured interviews, the analysis examines external assessments of bureaucratic influence, the internal self-understanding of bureaucratic actors, and their perceptions of the scope and incentives for intervention. The findings provide novel insights into how bureaucracies perceive their agency, interpret causal mechanisms of political change, and navigate their potential to shape democratic trajectories.