Democratic backsliding (meaning the state-led debilitation or elimination of the political
institutions sustaining an existing democracy) has changed dramatically since the Cold War …

Elections are held in nearly all countries in the contemporary world. Yet despite their aim of
allowing for peaceful transfers of power, elections held outside of consolidated democracies …

Holding regular elections is an essential feature of democratic practices. The case for
postponing elections is often made during emergency situations, however. Despite the …

Dictatorship is not what it was once. Military and single-party regimes have been withering
away. Today, most dictators organize multiparty elections. The Politics of Uncertainty …

An engrossing analysis of the pseudo-democratic methods employed by despots around the
world to retain control Contrary to what is commonly believed, authoritarian leaders who …

Why do parties and governments cheat in elections they cannot lose? This book documents
the widespread use of blatant and excessive manipulation of elections and explains what …

This paper presents a new measure polyarchy for a global sample of 182 countries from
1900 to 2017 based on the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) data, deriving from an expert …

Andreas Schedler preferences and authoritarian manipulation. We can resolve this
observational problem either by using the competitiveness of opposition parties as a proxy …

Few government programs that aid democracy abroad today seek to foster regime change.
Technical programs that do not confront dictators are more common than the aid to …

A rapidly-growing research agenda shared by scholars and applied policy analysts is
beginning to explore three questions: when do elections meet standards of electoral …