XXI April International Academic Conference: Understanding Democratic Breakdowns and Authoritarian Onsets, 1989-2018, by Jason Brownlee

Honorary speaker of the XXI April Conference prof. Jason Brownlee is delivering a presentation on ‘Understanding Democratic Breakdowns and Authoritarian Onsets, 1989-2018’

Abstract: Has the world entered an age of authoritarianism? Rigorous answers to the question have been difficult to reach, leaving academics and laypeople to speculate about how severely the latest strongmen and populists threaten western and developing democracies. This paper applies a robust version of Freedom House’s dichotomous electoral democracy measure during 1989-2018. Using these data, the paper asks: 1) Have democratic breakdowns become more frequent in the past decade? 2) Are these breakdowns ushering in sustained authoritarianism? On both questions, initial evidence does not support prognoses of a rising wave of authoritarianism. The paper then reports tests from a series of economic and institutional predictors for the onset of authoritarianism in electoral democracies.

Time and date of presentation: May 27, 2020 at 5 p.m. Moscow time

Working language: English

Registration is available here: https://conf.hse.ru/2020/polls/365789661.html

The invitation to meeting via Zoomwill be sent to you after registration is complete.