Responding to Democratic Backsliding: Elections, Protests and Citizens

To weaken democracy, only a slow, incremental undermining of the functionality of political institutions in certain situations is needed. If democratic resilience prevails, democracy can be maintained; however, if deficiencies in political systems are entrenched, this resilience might not be sufficient to avert autocratic tendencies. Barlai, Griessler, and Herbers (2025), in their comparative study on democratic backsliding in Europe—mainly in EU countries—demonstrated the importance of strong political institutions and an active civil society in hindering the strengthening of autocratic features in political systems. Even though elections may be manipulated, competition limited, and participation restricted, they remain a risk for autocratic regimes because the outcome is not entirely predictable. The accountability of political elites to their electorate is another mechanism of control: citizens can either demonstrate against certain policies or elect another candidate or party. This paper applies the arguments from the book Democratic Backsliding in Europe (Barlai, Griessler & Herbers, 2025) to the case studies of Serbia, North Macedonia, and Albania, in order to highlight the specificity of these political systems and to identify their weaknesses. In the case of the Western Balkan countries, the process of delayed democratisation is analysed to better understand the challenges posed by strong political actors and weaker political institutions.