Political scientist Nancy Bermeo defined democratic backsliding as the "state-led debilitation or elimination of the political institutions sustaining an existing democracy" in "On Democratic Backsliding," Journal of Democracy 27, no. 1 (January 2016).
How the forms have changed
Bermeo's central finding is that the methods of breaking democracies have shifted: "Open-ended coups d'état, executive coups, and blatant election-day vote fraud are declining while promissory coups, executive aggrandizement and strategic electoral manipulation and harassment are increasing" (Bermeo 2016).
- Executive aggrandizement
- The gradual weakening of checks on executive power by an elected government, typically through legal changes rather than a single rupture. On this site it corresponds to Pillar 3 of the Seven Pillars.
- Promissory coup
- A coup whose leaders present the takeover as a temporary defence of democracy and promise elections. For recent military takeovers, see Mali, Niger and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.
- Strategic electoral manipulation
- Tilting the field before election day (through control of media, candidate disqualification, or rule changes) rather than stuffing ballot boxes; see Pillar 6.
Bermeo later argued that the comparative study of how countries "resist or reverse backsliding is essential" (Bermeo, "Questioning Backsliding," Journal of Democracy, October 2022), which is the approach this site's Resilience section takes.