Enabling Pro-Democracy Parties to Resist Democratic Erosion

  • Savannah Jones

The world is currently experiencing a global wave of democratic erosion, with the number of democratizing countries plummeting to the lowest levels since 1973. Within this context, it’s more important than ever to empower pro-democracy political parties to push back on autocratic candidates and incumbents. Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) funders can be well-positioned to help opposition parties oppose democratic erosion, but what should this support look like?

New IRI research can help answer that question. A recently published evidence briefer distills findings from the academic and programming literature on patterns of democratic erosion, strategies political parties have used to oppose autocratic actors, factors that affect parties’ opportunities to implement these strategies, and existing evidence on how DRG programs can support parties to combat democratic erosion. 

Political parties have used several strategies to prevent or slow democratic erosion, and DRG implementers can support parties to implement these strategies. The strategies and opportunities for DRG political party programs are summarized below.  

Addressing Citizens’ Grievances 

Blocking Nominations of Co-partisans 

Emphasizing Autocratic Intentions 

Forming Cross-Party Alliances 

Avoiding Electoral Boycotts 

More details on political parties’ role in combating erosion, other opposition strategies, and factors influencing parties’ ability to implement strategies can be found in the evidence briefer. IRI is building the evidence for how DRG implementers can effectively support political parties to implement strategies to combat democratic erosion. IRI is leading several initiatives to build this evidence and extend the research conducted through the literature review, including an evaluation program focused on how DRG programs can assist political parties to identify and respond to citizens’ grievances. 

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