The Many Faces of Autocratization: Diversity and Cooperation among Authoritarian Actors

The political developments of the last decade put key components of liberal democracy—checks and balances, pluralism, and individual rights—in peril across the globe with autocratizers seeming to draw inspiration from the same playbook. Beyond challenging the foundations of democracy at home, they are increasingly striving for developing international alliances, thereby posing a threat also to the liberal democratic order.

Most explanations of the recent trend of de-democratization focus on economic inequality, the negative side effects of globalization, political polarization, and the transformation of communication technologies. The values, ideas, and norms of the promoters of de-democratization receive less attention. However, if we want to strengthen the resilience of liberal democracies as well as the liberal democratic order, we need to understand what drives illiberal actors, what they value, what political visions they pursue, and what the prospects and limits of their cooperation are.

As its starting point, this panel discussion builds on the AUTHLIB Working Paper “Ideologies of Autocratization” by Zsolt Enyedi, which argues that the global emergence of a coherent ideology of autocratization is unlikely. Yet, there is an intensification of ideological framing, structured around illiberal conservatism, paternalist populism, and civilizationist ethnocentrism that is prev-alent around the world. The consequences of this and its potential to fuel the international coop-eration and alliance building of authoritarian actors will be explored during the debate.

This event takes place in the framework of the “AUTHLIB – Neo-authoritarianisms in Europe and the Liberal Democratic Response” project funded by the European Union and the UK Research and Innovation. Views and opinions expressed are however do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or UK Research and Innovation. Neither the European Union nor the UK Re-search and Innovation can be held responsible for them.

To learn more about the AUTHLIB project, visit the website here. You can sign up for updates about the project here.