Promoting and Protecting Democracy in Times of Autocratization

This panel examines the politics of promoting and protecting democracy in an era of autocratization and global power competition. After decades of democratization, autocratization is underway worldwide. Authoritarian reversals are evident across Central and Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans, Latin America, and Africa. There has also been a lack of democratic progress in the Middle East and Central Asia. Even among the economically prosperous G20, many states have recently experienced democratic backsliding. In the current environment, established practices of democracy promotion and protection are being challenged, and democracy promoters must adapt to autocratization in target countries. They face competition from new actors, particularly autocratic ones, while democracy is simultaneously being challenged in some of the very countries promoting it. The withdrawal of development aid funding by the United States and other countries poses further challenges.
This panel welcomes contributions that explore how traditional democracy promoters adapt their policies in the face of autocratization. Contributions may also analyze the role of various actors, such as regional and non-governmental organizations, which may offer alternative conceptions of and approaches to democracy promotion, yet which may also face challenges in light of autocratization. Finally, contributions may examine how autocratic powers, such as Russia and China, which offer cooperation without conditionality, contest democracy promotion.