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

“(Luhrmann & Lindberg 2019).”

“a significant movement toward a third wave of autocratization, highlighting a global democratic decline 21 .”

“…the remaining attributes reflected the liberal principles that are often eroded during democratic backsliding: media freedom (Bermeo, 2016; Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019), checks and balances or mechanisms of horizontal accountability (Levitsky & Ziblatt, 2018), the rule of law (L. Diamond,…”

“At the same time, available evidence points to accelerated investment in renewable energy sources, efforts at supplier diversification, and the development of new infrastructure [36,45].”

“We follow the rules proposed by Lührmann and Lindberg (2019) to calculate this value and the starting and ending points of DB episodes.”

“While Hungary is our case in focus, the democratic backsliding (Bermeo 2016) or autocratization (Lührmann and Lindberg 2019) process is not unique to Hungary.”

“While the scholarly literature used to regard democratisation as a one-way process of development, it is now recognised that the quality of democracy can deteriorate; that is, democratic backsliding and illiberal regression may occur (Levitsky & Ziblatt, 2018; Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019).”

“Numerous works have worried about the health of western democracies (Bennett, 2018; Mair, 2013, Lühmann and Lindberg, 2019).”

“…Lindberg propose that democratic recession (erosion of democratic qualities) and democratic breakdown (collapse into autocracy) apply to democracies, whereas autocratic consolidation applies to deteriorating democratic attributes in authoritarian regimes (Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019: 1099 – 1100).”

“Currently the number of liberal democracies is in decline and the third wave of autocratization is here, creating new interest in authoritarian practices (Lührmann & Lindberg 2019).”

“On the other hand, as pointed out by Jakli and Stenberg (2021), subnational politics may contribute to autocratization – i.e. the de facto decline of core institutional requirements for electoral democracy (Lührmann and Lindberg 2019).”

“Recently scholars have documented a worrying trend: democracies have turned into autocracies and even in more advanced democracies leaders have introduced reforms weakening both political institutions and citizens’ rights (Boese et al. 2021; Lührmann and Lindberg 2019).”

“These tools, however, are rarely studied quantitatively in the context of authoritarian-to-authoritarian support, leaving a significant gap in understanding the global resilience of authoritarian regimes (Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019).”

“During earlier waves of democratic reversals, many breakdowns followed this “classic” pattern of autocratization (Lührmann and Lindberg 2019).”

“Lührmann and Lindberg (2019) have noted that the world is experiencing a mounting ‘wave of autocratization’, with more than a third of the planet’s population living under conditions where their civil liberties and political rights are deteriorating, or virtually inexistent.”

“Democracy is one of the most popular discourses in political theory and the most popular form of government in the world today (Amadi & Anele, 2022; Luhrmann & Lindberg, 2019).”

“Indeed, democracy in Africa is facing its worst recession in the Global South (Idrissa 2018; Luhmann and Lindberg 2019).”

“…, autocratisation (to name a few of the most widely used concepts 1 ) refer to gradual setbacks of democratic regime attributes under a legal façade and results in “the substantial de-facto decline of core institutional requirements for electoral democracy” (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019, 1096).”

“Of these examples, the Haggard and Kaufman (2021) study is entirely about democracies, whereas Diamond (2015) and Lührmann and Lindberg (2019) both emphasize that the global decline in democratic quality is minor but nonetheless worrisome because of its concentration in democracies.”

“…in attracting foreign capital (Appel & Orenstein, 2018), tourism, and new political identities (Čamprag, 2018; Graan, 2013; Kolbe, 2007) but also promoted investor‐friendly decision‐making along with the recent decline of democratic regime characteristics in the region (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019).”

“If we broadly understand autocratization to mean “democratization in reverse” (L ü hrmann and Lindberg 2019), such a reversal has arguably occurred since 2014, as Modi’s authoritarian populist regime has consolidated (Widmalm 2019).”

“Lührmann and Lindberg (2019) cite an outright autocratisation of the regime while Batory (2015) describes the role of Fidesz as a populist-in-government phenomenon.”

“In all, when assessing the impact of COVID-19 on democracy, several aspects have to be taken into consideration: First, the pandemic hit the global community in the midst of a longer evolution of democratic regression (Diamond 2021; Lührmann and Lindberg 2019).”

“Gran parte de los estudios sobre autocratización y declive democrático registran el efecto agregado del retroceso observado en los atributos del régimen político (Cassani y Tomini, 2019; Lührmann y Lindberg, 2019).”

“Autocratization can manifest itself as the regression of a liberal democracy towards an electoral one or the decline of an electoral democracy towards an elective autocracy (Lührmann and Lindberg 2019).”

“…erosion (Levitsky & Ziblatt, 2018, p. 77), during which multiparty elections remain in place, but become less meaningful through weakening of the rule of law and checks and balances, restricting media freedom, and reducing the space for civil society (Bermeo, 2016; Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019).”

“These conditions coincide with what Lührmann and Lindberg (2019) term the “third wave of autocratisation,” during which core features of democratic governance have weakened even in long-standing democracies.”

“28 Sound, light, subatomic particles display wavelike qualities.”

“…high-threshold programs, where it is obligatory). illiberal ‘drastic cases’ (Bochsler and Juon, 2019, p. 16) or ‘prominent cases’ of ‘democratic erosion’ (Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019, p. 1105) within the region, while in other countries ‘a relatively stable but low-quality democracy is the norm’…”

“Although the exploring the cause of their democratic backsliding requires another examination (cf. Vachudova, 2020; Bernhard, 2021), some have focused on the more domestic political logic (cf. Pytlas, 2016).”

“…decoupling’ (Ding & Slater, 2021), ‘democratic fatigue syndrome as the great regression’ (Blühdorn, 2020), or a ‘third wave autocratization’ (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019), the ascendancy of © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group CONTACT Ronald A. Pernia…”

“We chose ‘ democratic backsliding ’ instead of other concepts such as ‘ autocratization ’ because it is not limited to electoral democracy (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019, p. 1096) and it is also a broad term that can ‘ constitute democratic breakdown or simply the serious weak-ening of existing…”

“Another important macro-level distinction is between full democracies, and non-democratic regimes like Yin, Fu & Zheng’s (2023) discussion of china—as well as the spectrum between these two, as we are at a time of democratic backsliding (Lührmann and Lindberg 2019).”

“Despite ongoing processes of autocratization in countries worldwide, democracy and multiparty elections remain the global norm (Lührmann and Lindberg 2019, 1097 – 1098).”

“…Hong Kong and Thai protest movements involved pushback from civil society against democratic backsliding, particularly restrictions on Dahl’s, (2008) two dimensions of polyarchy – namely, public contestation and political participation – also known as autocratization (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019).”

“The durability of autocratic regimes in different parts of the world and the “ third wave of autocratization ” (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019) have made it clear that the optimism over the “ triumph of liberal democracy ” declared after the end of the Cold War was somewhat premature.”

“…Bumpy Road of Europeanization and Democratization turned into a Rocky Road around 2010, and there was a sharp turn from Europeanization and Democratization to De ‑Europeanization and De ‑Democratization (see e.g. Daly 2019; Krastev and Holmes 2018; Lührmann and Lindberg 2019; Solska et al. 2018).”

“In ‘the third wave of autocratization’ (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019), the lead figures of ‘backsliding democracies’ today are civilian leaders whose power and position rest on ability to negotiate and manipulate public opinion and opinion-making.”

“Scholars conceptualize democratic backsliding in diverse ways, with some restricting the term to democratic regimes only (e.g. Bermeo, 2016; Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019) and others extending it to all regime types, including autocracies (e.g. Fong, 2020; Waldner and Lust, 2018).”

“As the prominent diagnosis of a “third wave of autocratization” (Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019) suggests, the overall global trend in the more recent past has been clearly towards the autocratic end of the continuum, if starting from very different locations.”

“While the decline of democratic standards in liberal democracies is often referred to as democratic backsliding (Lührmann and Lindberg 2019; Waldner and Lust 2018), a regime change from a democratic to an authoritarian system is termed autocratization (Cassani and Tomini 2020; Lührmann and Lindberg…”

“Research on authoritarianism has seen an important expansion in recent years (see Diamond, Plattner, and Walter 2016; Gurol et al. 2024; Lührman and Lindberg 2019).”

“Such democratic transgression by regimes in power is the most common form of current-day democratic erosion (e.g., Bermeo, 2016; Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019), and bears direct signi fi cance for our understanding of democratic backsliding in presidential systems, such as Nigeria.”

“” The third wave of authoritarianism in the mid-1990s changed the tactics and characteristics of authoritarian regimes (Lührmann and Lindberg, 2019).”

“Anti-systemic and anti-capitalist groups and autocrats have challenged the tenets of liberal democracies all over the world, from Venezuela, Brazil, and The Philippines to Hungary, Turkey, and Russia (Levitsky and Way 2010, Svolik 2019, Lührmann and Lindberg 2019).”