Postgraduate Course: Democratic Backsliding, Resistance and Recovery (PLIT11031)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | In the past decade, there has been an explosion of research about what is variously known as democratic decay, erosion, deconsolidation and backsliding. All of this refers to the socio-political processes via which countries that used to be democracies have become flawed, hybrid, or even full authoritarian regimes. Most scholars agree that democratic backsliding is happening globally and shows no sign of slowing down. How then can we understand what causes democratic backsliding, and more importantly, how we can halt, and even reverse, it? Taking a comparative approach, this course will examine case studies around the world to enable students to develop understandings about the early warning signs of democratic backsliding, the causes and practices involved, and the kinds of resistance that do (and dont) work in different contexts. |
| Course description |
The course will begin by considering the different critical terms used to discuss democratic backsliding, before going on to examine cases of democratic erosion around the world. First, we will analyse the expansion of executive power over government agencies and regulatory bodies, as well as other state institutions, such as the courts. We will then turn to the ways in which governments and their allies seek to capture the press, social media, and broader civil society. As part of this, we will attend to the role of AI in increasing state surveillance, and the undermining of collective, fact-based political debate.
Finally, we will consider how these factors interact with the democratic accountability exerted by citizens through elections, mass protests and industrial action. In particular, we will consider what kinds of collective resistance seem to be most effective in enabling countries to recover from periods of backsliding, as well as evaluating the roles that universities can (and should) play in that process. The course will be taught using lectures and tutorials.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand and analyse the main issues within scholarship about democratic backsliding, resistance and recovery, including its features, limits, debates and terminology.
- Exhibit detailed and critical knowledge of one or more countries identified as engaging in democratic backsliding
- Synthesise and evaluate the relationship between the vectors of accountability involved in democratic backsliding, resistance, and recovery
- Apply and convey complex ideas on this topic in a well-structured and coherent form
- Use comparative research about different countries critically to identify and evaluate evidence about generalisable patterns of backsliding and recovery
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Reading List
Bermeo, N (2016). On Democratic Backsliding. Journal of Democracy. 27 (9): 5-19.
Carothers, T and Hartnett, B (2024). Misunderstanding Democratic Backsliding. Journal of Democracy 35 (3): 24-37
Daniels, RJ with Shreve, G and Spector, P (2021). What universities owe democracy. Baltimore, M: John Hopkins Press.
Gamboa, L (2022) Resisting Backsliding: Opposition Strategies against the Erosion of Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
George, C (2025). Fighting Polarisation: Shared Communicative Spaces in Divided Democracies. London Polity.
Haggard, S and Kaufman, R (2021). Backsliding: Democratic regress in the contemporary world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Laebens, M.G. and Lührmann, A (2021). What halts democratic erosion? The changing role of accountability. In A Lührmann and W Merkel (eds.) Resilience of Democracy. London: Routledge, 40-60.
Levitsky, S and Ziblatt, D (2018). How Democracies Die. NY: Viking Press.
Nord, M, Angiolillo, F, Good God, A and Lindberg, S. (2025). State of the World 2024: 25 years of autocratization democracy trumped? Democratization 32 (4): 839-864.
Przeworski, A (2019). Crises of Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Riedl, R B, Friesen, P, McCoy, J and Roberts, K (2024). Democratic backsliding, resilience and resistance. World Politics 77: 155-177
Schiffrin, A (2021). Media Capture: How Money, Digital Platforms and Governments Control the News. NY: Columbia University Press.
Snyder, T (2017) On Tyranny. NY: Crown Publishing
StStka, V and Mihelj, S (2024) The Illiberal Public Sphere: Media in Polarized Societies. London: Palgrave.
Williamson, M, Agor, C and AB Edgell (2025). Democracy in Trouble: Democratic Resilience and Breakdown from 1900 to 2022. Cambridge: Cambridge University |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Attributes:
Curiosity for learning that makes a positive difference
Courage to expand and fulfil their potential
Passion to engage locally and globally
Skills:
Analytical and critical thinking
Handling complexity and ambiguity
Planning, organising and time management
Team working inter-personal skills
Ethics and social responsibility
Independent learning and development
Cross-cultural communication
Effective written and verbal communication |
| Keywords | Democratic backsliding,de-democratisation,autocratisation,executive aggrandisement,capture |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Kate Wright
Tel: (0131 6)51 1480
Email: Kate.Wright@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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