The Political Dynamics of Progress and Backlash on Women’s and LGBT+ Rights

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Women’s and LGBT rights have been under attack in many parts of the world in recent years, a development that many observers have linked with democratic backsliding and autocratization processes. Yet not all countries have experienced this backlash. In a number of fragile settings, there has even been progress in these domains. This panel seeks to shed light on these tensions, helping to explain the factors that determine whether we see progress or backlash on critical gender rights. Arriola, Choi, Davis, Phillips and Rakner focus on the frames that make politicians likelier to extend formal protections to LGBT groups using original data from Zambia. Boas and Longman compare different strategies used by conservative groups to undermine LGBT rights in Africa and Latin America, focusing on their contradictions. Corrales and Díaz examine why populist authoritarians use extremist discourse and selective polarization, examining the conditions that render these strategies fruitful even when they are risky. López Villegas analyzes how even seemingly progressive incumbents can be detrimental towards women’s rights when they are attempting to consolidate power, using an original survey in Latin America. Looking at Uganda, Zetterberg and Bjarnegard bridge the divide between progress and backlash towards women’s rights in non-democratic settings by examining how each can be used as a tool to legitimate an incumbent’s hold on power.

Sub Unit

• Division 44: Democracy and Autocracy

Individual Presentations

• Competing Frames and Policymakers' Preferences for LGBT+ Protection - Leonardo R. Arriola, University of California, Berkeley; Lise Rakner, University of Bergen; Donghyun Danny Choi, Brown University; Justine Davis, University of Michigan; Melanie Lauren Phillips, University of California, Berkeley

• Empire and Intolerance: Anti-LGBTQ Movements in Africa and Latin America - Taylor C. Boas, Boston University; Timothy Longman, Boston University

• Intentional Polarization - Javier Corrales, Amherst College; Ricardo José Salas Dïaz, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

• Progressive or Not? How Authoritarian Left-Wing Incumbents Attack Women’s Rights - Alejandra Lopez Villegas

• Autocratic Genderwashing and Genderbashing as Means to Secure Authoritarian Rule - Elin Bjarnegard, Uppsala University; Par Zetterberg, Uppsala University

Chair

• Erica Frantz Michigan State University

Discussants

• Callan Hummel University of British Columbia

• Angie Torres-Beltran Michigan State University