DEMOCRATIC BACKSLIDING AND BREAKDOWN

This course examines regime change from a democracy to an authoritarian regime. We explore both democratic erosion and dramatic breakdowns of democracy such as coups. Are these fundamentally different or do they happen because of similar reasons? Does democratic reversal happen because of a faulty institutionalization of democracy, a failure of democratic consolidation? Is it structurally determined or is it a matter of actors' choices that might have gone differently? How can these processes be stopped? These are the questions at the heart of this course. The purpose here is not for you to take in some kind of conventional wisdom on the topic. Avoiding this with democratic reversals is easier than with some other political science topics because no such conventional wisdom exists. If there ever was a point at which we thought we had a solid understanding of regime change, developments in recent decades have caused us to question that understanding. You will be introduced to a variety of competing theoretical explanations, and you will select a case of democratic reversal to which you will apply selected theories. All of this will prepare you to participate in a simulation of a case of a democracy in danger in which you will play the role of a political actor, making choices that either further democracy’s decline or reverse it.