Backsliding in Advanced Industrial Democracies: Historical Patterns to Today

• In Event: Democratic Erosion and Resistance: Domestic to International Factors 1

Abstract

Although much attention has been directed to processes of democratic backsliding around the world, recent scholarship has suggested that wealthy democracies remain highly resilient and largely secure. We explore the methodological and theoretical underpinnings of these reassuring arguments – including statistical projections from historical patterns, risk aversion in the domain of gains, and the political correlates of social pluralism – and analyze their potential shortcomings. In so doing, we identify structural and political forces that contribute to democratic backsliding in the contemporary period, and raise a note of caution that should guard against any scholarly complacency regarding the stability of democracy in wealthy societies.

Authors

• Kenneth M. Roberts, Cornell University

• Rachel Beatty Riedl, Cornell University

• Paul Friesen, Cornell University