From the mid-1970s to the early 2000s, transitions from authoritarian rule in more than 60 countries across Southern Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe led to the establishment of new democratic regimes. This so-called “third wave” of democracy reached its peak during the first decade of the 21st century, but it seemingly reversed course thereafter. Indeed, democracy has been in retreat on the global stage for much of the past two decades, as measured by leading research and tracking organizations like Freedom House and Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). In its 2022 annual report, Freedom House documented 16 consecutive years of decline in its global freedom index, and claimed that the “global order is nearing a tipping point” in the struggle between democracy and authoritarianism. Similarly, V-Dem reports that the “level of democracy enjoyed by the average global citizen in 2021 is down to levels last registered in 1989. The last 30 years of democratic advances following the end of the Cold War have been eradicated.”
What explains this reversal of fortunes, and what, if anything, can be done about it? This course examines democracy in theory and in practice, exploring the origins and institutional forms of democratic rule, transitions to and from democracy, and the fragilities and discontents that leave democratic regimes vulnerable to polarized conflicts, autocratic challenges, and “backsliding” dynamics. Students will analyze the institutional and civil society sources of democratic resiliency, the conditions under which this resiliency is threatened, and the strategies adopted by both democratic and autocratic actors to shape regime outcomes. They will also study different authoritarian alternatives to democracy and the social forces that nurture and sustain them.