Article
What Do We Know About Resistance to Democratic Subversion?
Annals of Comparative Democratization
(2019)
Abstract
Over the past years, concerns about worldwide “democratic backsliding” have been spreading and deepening in academic, political, and diplomatic circles. Unfortunately, though, comparative political science has little theoretical or practical guidance to offer on processes of democratic subversion. As a discipline, we have been caught ill-prepared by democracy’s renewed fragility. We do not possess a stock of reliable generalizations about the dynamics of democratic subversion. In this brief essay, I wish to point to the thinness of our comparative knowledge on possible counterstrategies to illiberal aggressions against democracy. In US political debate, both political actors and academic observers have been formulating a variety of strategic recommendations on paths of democratic “resistance” to Donald Trump. Many of these practical recommendations are grounded in enlightening historical analogies and sophisticated political judgment. They are not, however, grounded in systematic comparative evidence.
Keywords
- democratic subversion,
- resistance,
- popular mobilization,
- Donald Trump
Disciplines
Publication Date
2019
Citation Information
Andreas Schedler. "What Do We Know About Resistance to Democratic Subversion?" Annals of Comparative Democratization Vol. 17 Iss. 1 (2019) p. 4 - 7 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/andreas_schedler/47/