A third wave of autocratization is here: what is new about it?

“…recession of democracy (Dalton, 2004; Crouch, 2004; Mair, 2013; Diamond, 2015, 2021; Levitsky & Ziblatt, 2018) and an autocratic-authoritarian turn (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019; Maerz et al., 2020; also see the contributions by Swyngedouw and Lütjen in this Special Issue) seem to be gaining pace.”

“Democratic backsliding, also referred to as autocratisation, is a relatively recent phenomenon (e.g., Bermeo, 2016; Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019).”

“Mechkova, Lührmann and Lindberg (2017) note that elections are high-profile events and can be more easily observed by the international community and media.”

“Such regressive moves—commonly termed ‘backsliding’—are increasingly evident in an unprecedented number of erstwhile democracies (Luhrmann and Lindberg, 2019).”

“…liberal democratic norms such as his endorsement of extrajudicial killings, unwavering public support for the Marcos family (whose ill-gotten wealth during the era of dictatorship has yet to be fully recovered by the state), and the unwavering campaign to restore death penalty (Macaraeg, 2019).”

“CONTACT Rustamjon Urinboyev rustamjon.urinboyev@soclaw.lu.se trend in what Lührmann and Lindberg (2019) referred as the ‘third wave of autocratization’.”

“The broad approach applies the standard of the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019): a decline of 0.1 on the 0–1 polyarchy index in a connected period.”

“We illustrate the use of the model on the case of Hungary, which has become a paradigmatic case for the emergence of hybrid regimes (Diamond 2019; Fukuyama 2018; Lührmann and Lindberg 2019; Mounk 2018, 2020).”

“For this reason, and because of the common view that democracy in the early twenty-first century is increasingly challenged by autocratization (Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019; Møller and Skaaning, 2023), this period is particularly well suited to identify different levels and capacities of democratic…”

“…accession to achieve objectives related to economic convergence (Moravcsik and Vachudova, 2003; Thomson, 2009) or democratic stability (Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019; Kelemen, 2020); not all EU decision making processes were transformed to accommodate new-comers (Hertz & Leuffen, 2011; Plechanovová,…”

“…electoral democracy and more precarious forms of authoritarian rule, which is why scholarship on electoral authoritari-anism and its pluralist or more controlled variants has been so prolific since the end of the Third Wave of Democratization (Alizada et al., 2021; Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019).”

“Many countries worldwide face democratic regress and a turn to authoritarianism (Lu¨hrmann and Lindberg 2019).”

“…from the V-Dem Institute define autocratization ‘as substantial de-facto decline of core institutional requirements for electoral democracy’ (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019, p. 1096) and, accordingly, use V-Dem’s Electoral Democracy Index.25 This is in line with the overall pattern observed in…”

“…has a profound implication for Hong Kong’s post-NSL political development as Beijing dramatically tightens its grip on this former British colony.5 As Lhrmann and Lindberg (2019) point out, the ongoing third wave of autocratization often takes place under a legal façade whereby restricting…”

“We found a decrease in record availability by two orders of magnitude in the 1970s, coinciding with the beginning of a period of conflict and autocratic consolidation (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019).”

“2Autocratization, the reverse concept of democratization, is an overarching term for any substantial decline of democratic regime attributes in democracies or autocracies (Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019).”

“We seem to have entered “a third wave of autocratization” (Lührman & Lindberg, 2019), which represents a sharp reversal of 1City, University of London, UK 2Department of International Relations, Koç University, Turkey Corresponding Author: Mustafa Kutlay, Department of International Politics, City,…”

“Turkey ’ s de-mocracy standards fell under an emerging trend what some scholars call ‘ the third wave of autocratization ’ (Lührmann et al., 2018; Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019).”

“However, with rising levels of authoritarianism globally (L€uhrmann & Lindberg, 2019), newly powerful and assertive authoritarian states can work to counter human rights norms, particularly those that pertain to democracy, or even advance alternative authoritarian-friendly norms (Ambrosio, 2010;…”

“From one perspective, conservative states with conservative populations should ergo produce conservative, illiberal legislation over time, especially as the so-called “third wave” of democratization and hegemonic liberalization wanes (Huntington 1993; Lührmann and Lindberg 2019; McFaul 2002).”

“S.has declinedrapidly 29,30 .”

“Across the globe, the rise of populism, illiberalism, and post-truth politics has undermined democratic norms and institutions, while many author-itarian regimes have become increasingly repressive (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019).”

“As such, move from democracies toward electoral democracies, electoral authoritarian regimes in the hands of populist leaders has become a salient global challenge affecting several countries (see Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019).”

“They simply became “dormant” at a time of popular governments overseeing economic growth before the onset of a “third wave of autocratization” (Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019).”

“As part of a renewed debate on authoritarianism and autocratisation (Bermeo, 2016; Svolik, 2012), the politics of ETLs has recently attracted attention (Baturo, 2010; Baturo and Elgie, 2019; McKie, 2019).”

“Such governments lack commitment to democratic procedures, threaten political opponents, disrespect minority rights and tend to accept political violence (Bermeo 2016; Levitsky and Ziblatt 2018; Lührmann and Lindberg 2019).”

“This global democratic recession – also known as ‘ democratic backsliding ’ (Bermeo, 2016), ‘ democratic regression ’ (Gerschewski, 2021) or ‘ autocratisation ’ (Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019) – has triggered renewed interest in the role of civil society.”

“…the article challenges the main notion in much of the autocratisa-tion literature that views elites as the main actors of autocratisation (Lührmann and Lindberg 2019, 1096) and locates resistance to it mostly in judges, anti-corruption commissions, opposition parties, internal regime…”

“This coding procedure is loosely based on the coding of autocratization by Lührmann and Lindberg (2019).”

“However, as the third wave of autocratization “turns viral” (Hellmeier et al., 2021; Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019), the democratic credentials of elected governments should not be taken for granted.”

“According to different conceptualizations and measurements of democratic erosion, there was no democratic erosion in Argentina between 1989 and 1999 (Boese et al 2021; Coppedge 2017; Lührmann and Lindberg 2019; Mainwaring and Bizzarro 2019; Pelk and Croissant 2021).”

“This increase in the frequency of protests coincides with what scholars have marked as the third wave of autocratization (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019), or a global crisis of democracy, with 16 consecutive years of decline in global freedom (Repucci & Slipowitz, 2022).”

“As Lührmann and Lindberg (2019, 1097) point out ‘contemporary autocrats have mastered the art of subverting electoral standards without breaking their façade completely.’”

“These concerns were amplified by the fact that the pandemic also arrived during a period in which the world was already undergoing a global resurgence of autocracy—what some have called the “third wave of autocratization” (L€uhrmann & Lindberg, 2019; Maerz et al., 2020).”

“…of law (Abramowitz and Repucci 2018; K Mechkova et al 2017; Repucci 2020; Schenkkan and Repucci 2019), governmental attacks on the media and freedom of expression are accelerating and deepening the third wave of autocratization (Lührmann and Lindberg 2019; Lührmann et al 2019; Maerz et al 2020).”

“A separate and more recent line of research has observed signs of cultural backlash and democratic erosion (Bermeo, 2016; Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019; Mauk 2020; Waldner & Lust, 2018).”

“Democratic backsliding has become a major concern in recent years (Haggard and Kaufman 2021; Lührmann and Lindberg 2019; Levitsky and Ziblatt 2018).”

“First, common to the co-occurrences of these political upheavals were their insurgent challenges to increasing autocratization—the substantial contraction of competitive elections and/or civil lib-erties in a political system (Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019).”

“Using human-coded cross-national datasets, comparative political scientists can study the spread (or decline) of democratic regimes (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019), monitor the state of human rights worldwide (Fariss, 2014), or gauge the extent of media freedom across a global sample of countries…”

“…and Lindberg 2019), often include elected incumbents gradually undermining formal and informal democratic norms and practices by weakening key democratic institutions rather than abolishing them (Diamond 2015; Bermeo 2016; Coppedge 2017; Levitsky and Ziblatt 2018; Lührmann and Lindberg 2019).”

“…but authoritarian-leaning political leaders are subverting liberal norms and institutions from within, undermining pluralism, the rule of law, and minority rights even as they maintain the outward appearance of a democracy (Levitsky and Ziblatt 2018; Lührmann and Lindberg 2019; Diamond 2022).”