Opposing Autocratization Across Regimes

Worldwide, gradual and legalistic autocratization endangers democratic and autocratic regimes; however, it leaves room for resistance. Although we know much about opposition strategies, systematic cross-country comparisons including various democratic and autocratic regime trajectories remain rare. By comparing opposition to autocratization across these cases, we can gain a broader, more nuanced understanding of how opposition functions in different political contexts. Building on Contentious Episodes Analysis, this approach focuses on interactions between government authorities and challengers around autocratic policy proposals that weaken different dimensions of democratic accountability. In this way, we examine how opposition actor configurations, opposition strategies, and contextual conditions differ and perhaps shape autocratization. Ultimately, the paper presents a conceptual framework for measuring opposition to autocratization across regimes. Based on two completed data collections to date, drawn from news articles on Index and Gazeta Wyborcza, it presents findings from a preliminary comparison of four episodes each of resistance to autocratic legislation in Hungary (2010-2018) and Poland (2015-2018). Data collection for the third European case, Serbia, is not yet complete.