Resilience Research
An enormous number of books and articles have been written about democratic backsliding over the past 15 years. There is much less written about the resilience of democracy. We emphasise the importance of examining the sources of resilience in light of the current strains on democratic systems. At a time of global crisis, the rise of an undemocratic right, and a general decline of public confidence in liberal democracy, it is also urgent to analyse the strategies and actions that can make democracies more resilient. These are some of the reasons why TODA set up this research subgroup in the spring of 2025. The research into democratic resilience will focus on different regions of the world. Particularly on: North America, Latin America, India, Europe, and South East Asia.
The Impact of Trump 2.0 on Global Democracy
We begin our series on “Democratic Resilience” with analyses of the current state of US democracy. Trump’s policies are currently leading to a hollowing out of the country’s democratic institutions and democratic culture. The questions arise: how resilient are those democratic institutions, how stable is the country’s political culture, how are the economic and cultural elites of society reacting, and last but not least, what role does the demos, the people, play? Will US democracy survive as a constitutional and liberal system? What impact will internal developments in the world’s most powerful country have on the rest of the world? These and other questions will be published and discussed here over the coming months.
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From Memes to Movements: The Gen Z Accountability Crusade and Democratic Resilience in Southeast Asia
Image: The One Piece flag used during an anti-corruption protest in Manila, 2025 │MJX Studio / shutterstock_2686394273 This paper examines how a younger digitally native generation is redefining political participation and democratic accountability across Southeast Asia’s fragile democracies. Building on a comparative study of youth movements in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand, it explores how…
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India’s Cockroaches Have a Message for the World
Image: PradeepGaurs / Shutterstock The country’s education crisis is a global problem Gen Z has already passed the baton in India. After spotlighting the country’s broken public examinations through an unprecedented popular movement, it is Gen Alpha’s turn to lay bare even deeper layers of dysfunction in India’s education system. There’s a message for the world…
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Democratic Resilience in the United States in the Second Trump Presidency
Cover image: Alejandro Diaz Manrique / Shutterstock This paper focuses on the challenges of backsliding and recovery in the United States. What are the primary sources of resilience, and what are the chances that American democracy can rebuild in the aftermath of the Trump era? The paper begins with a comparative look at ‘recovering backsliders’—countries…
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Silent Erosion and Unyielding Resilience of New Zealand Democracy
This report argues that New Zealand’s reputation as one of the world’s most stable social democracies increasingly obscures a quieter democratic erosion, evident across four domains: collapsing institutional trust, the structural collapse of the fourth estate, growing executive reliance on parliamentary urgency and fast-tracked legislation, and deepening constitutional tension over Māori rights. Yet erosion is…
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