Combatting democratic backsliding: what works?

Recent years have seen rising global concern about ‘democratic backsliding’, whereby political leaders challenge democratic norms and institutions and dismantle checks and balances on the executive. What can be done to combat these trends? In particular, how can international actors, and domestic actors such as opposition forces and civil society, work constructively to counteract or contain attempted backsliding? What is the UK’s role in such debates? In this seminar, an expert panel discussed what we can learn from existing responses to backsliding around the world.

Speakers:

• Professor Kim Lane Scheppele, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton University
• Ken Godfrey, Executive Director of the European Partnership for Democracy
• Dr Seema Shah, Head of Democracy Assessment at International IDEA

Chair: Professor Meg Russell, Director of the Constitution Unit

Useful reading:

• What is democratic backsliding and is the UK at risk? by Meg Russell, Alan Renwick, and Lisa James
• The anatomy of democratic backsliding: could it happen here? by Stephan Haggard and Robert R Kaufman

Listen to the seminar