Transnational Democratic Backsliding: El Salvador’s Diasporic Mobilization

• In Event: Mobilizing and Mobilized Diasporas

Abstract

Diaspora communities are often havens of democratic activism, including anti-government agitation, when authoritarian regimes in homelands close off domestic spaces of political contestation. Authoritarian regimes may, however, also draw support from diaspora communities and mobilize them to consolidate control. When do such communities switch from sources of regime change to regime consolidation? This paper considers the case study of El Salvador and the role of President Nayib Bukele’s mobilization of the Salvadoran diaspora in support of his establishment of single party rule, based on observation of diaspora campaigning and voting in the 2024 presidential election.

Author

• Michael Ahn Paarlberg, Virginia Commonwealth University