The “Backsliders” and What We Can Do About Them – In Conversation with Susan Stokes
In our latest episode of the special series producedin partnership with the Journal of Democracy, we discuss therecent article by Susan Stokes, entitled “Why Elected Leaders Subvert Democracy” (Journal of Democracy, Vol. 37, No.2,April 2026). Democracy today faces many paradoxes. According to recent reports, democracy has regressed to the level of 1978, and the successes of the third wave of democratization have been eroded. More than two-thirds ofthe world’s population now lives in autocracies. At the same time, however, democracy seems almost hegemonic as a political idea. Today, even the…
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