The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies

This week on Democracy Dialogues, co-hosts Rachel Beatty Riedl and Esam Boraey speak with Susan C. Stokes, Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and Director of the Chicago Center on Democracy.

Drawing from her book The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies (Princeton University Press, 2022), Stokes examines why elected leaders sometimes choose to erode the democratic institutions that brought them to power. She explores the structural, economic, and political incentives that drive these choices—and how citizens, parties, and institutions can push back.

The conversation ranges across global cases—from Latin America and Eastern Europe to the United States—revealing the common “playbook” used by backsliding leaders and the conditions that make resistance possible. The episode also considers the difficult choices facing pro-democracy actors: Should they always follow the highest democratic standards, or sometimes play hardball to defend democracy itself?

This is a crucial conversation for understanding why backsliding happens, how it can be resisted, and what practical lessons democratic leaders and citizens can draw as new elections approach in the U.S. and around the world.

Books, Links, & Articles

• Susan C. Stokes, The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies (Princeton University Press, 2022)
• Chicago Center on Democracy – here

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