DEMOCRACY WATCHMany Once Democratic Countries Continue to Backslide, Becoming Less Free – but Their Leaders Continue to Enjoy Popular Support
The last decade-and-a-half has witnessed what Freedom House describes as a global “democratic backsliding,” with 60 countries ceasing to be functioning, if at times flawed, democracies. In many of these non-democratic countries, however, the leadership which has put an end to the country’s democracy – for example, in Hungary and Turkey – remains popular.
Democracy is decreasing globally – and has been doing so for the last 17 years, according to 2023 findings published by the nonprofit group Freedom House, which advocates for democracy.
These leaders’ generous public spending on key constituencies and effective promotion of nationalism are two reasons why they remain popular.
I am a political scientist who studies political and economic dynamics in low- and middle-income countries. This phenomenon of societies becoming less democratic after having made progress toward full democracy is known as democratic backsliding.
In my 2022 co-authored research, my colleague, Byunghwan Son, and I identified two key ways that democratic backsliding happens.
First, political leaders weaken democracies when they adopt legal and policy measures that make the executive branch stronger and the other branches of government – such as the judiciary and legislative branches – weaker. This then reduces checks and balances on the executive branch.
Democracy also is weakened when leaders make it difficult for opposition parties to compete in elections. This curtails the citizens’ choice to support candidates who are not the de facto leader, whether it becomes harder to learn about these candidates in the media or because it is dangerous to publicly support their causes.
Political leaders in a range of countries, including China and Nicaragua, are increasingly taking steps to consolidate their power by undermining other branches of government and the opposition. When leaders do so, they are displaying authoritarian tendencies, meaning they try to create a government with a very strong executive branch and little tolerance for dissent.
But despite these trends, some leaders who have gained authoritarian reputations among critics – like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, president of Turkey, and Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary – enjoy high approval ratings within their countries.
Why do leaders who diminish democracy have such strong public support?
These leaders’ generous public spending on key constituencies and effective promotion of nationalism are two reasons.
Erdoğan’s Endurance
Erdoğan has been in power for almost 20 years. He first served as prime minister of Turkey in 2003 and then became president in 2014. He was reelected president for another five-year term in May 2023.
Opposition parties are able to compete in Turkish elections, but Erdoğan has taken other legal measures over the years to diminish contenders’ chances among voters.
Since Erdoğan’s AKP political party came to power in 2002, he has appointed sympathetic judges. This has also enabled him to remove or jail prosecutors and judges and replace them with loyalists.
