Theories of Democratic Backsliding

We review recent contributions to the modeling of democratic backsliding. We organize existing theories according to (1) the source of constraints on the executive (vertical or horizontal restrainers), and (2) the target of backsliding (electoral manipulation or aggrandizement), and then use them as scaffolding for a meta-model of democratic backsliding. This meta-model allows us to describe and compare the premises and insights of this scholarship. We further apply our 2-dimensional classification to over thirty empirical papers and we show how theoretical assumptions can guide research design by clearly highlighting the scope conditions of different theories of backsliding. We conclude the review by highlighting open issues for future research.

Keywords: Democratic backsliding, Formal theory, Constraints on the executive, Electoral manipulation

JEL Classification: H10, H11, C72, C73

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Grillo, Edoardo and Luo, Zhaotian and Nalepa, Monika and Prato, Carlo, Theories of Democratic Backsliding (October 22, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4612396 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4612396