De-Democratization is Not Democratization Backwards

Everywhere one reads that democracy is in decline around the world and that we are witnessing a third reverse wave of democratization. The datasets (especially Freedom House and Varieties of Democracy) might not agree on the pace, timing, and severity, but the overall trend seems to be clear. These developments are accompanied by a growing literature on democratic erosion, backsliding, regression, de-democratization and autocratization. And also by calls to rethink contemporary autocracy and to develop more fine-grained typologies and more nuanced understandings of electoral as well as closed authoritarianism. My paper seeks to make three contributions. First, an empirical contribution, comparing the drivers of democratization and de-democratization. The question is: Does what we know about democratization also explain de-democratization? The second contribution is conceptual. Building on Bogaards (2022) it challenges the lexical approach to mapping regime subtypes, suggesting instead the merits of diminished subtypes, especially the German typology of defective democracies. Here the question is: Do democratic losses mirror democratic gains, looking across a variety of democratic domains? Finally, my paper seeks to make a theoretical contribution, distinguishing between de-democratization and autocratization. What we want to know is: Do we need different theories for de-democratization and autocratization? As is clear from the title, I have tentative answers to all three questions. De-democratization is not democratization backwards (process), what we know about democratization is a poor guide to understanding de-democratization (drivers) and if we are going to come to terms with de-democratization and autocratization around the world, we have to respect the difference between these two phenomena and to theorize them distintictively (theory). The last point will be illustrated through a brief examination of the relationship between de-democratization, autocratization, and gender politics.