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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After Democratic Erosion: Institutional Resilience and Democratic Distortion in Brazil
This paper discusses Brazilian democracy which survived Bolsonaro, but did not return to its previous equilibrium. Breakdown was avoided through a combination of contingency and institutional resistance: a permissive fiscal moment that ultimately proved insufficient, an international signal that a government born of a coup would not be recognized, and, decisively, a judicial-electoral response concentrated…
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‘Dirty Hands’: Should the AfD Be Banned?
Image: Pim Kraster / Shutterstock This paper discusses the moral dilemma facing German politicians and intellectuals today: which is the most ethical or responsible way to act for German decision makers facing the question of whether to ban the right-wing authoritarian Alternative for Germany party (AfD)? The paper references two opposite views on how to…
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Hollow Parties in India’s Cockroach-Eaten Democracy
Image: Firdous Nazir NurPhoto/Shutterstock This paper discusses important lessons for democratic decay held by India’s political parties. A Gen Z movement has brought Modi to heel but cannot slow India’s plunge into illiberalism under his watch thanks to the country’s severely diminished opposition parties. The Indian case shows how democratic resilience is threatened by the universal pathology…
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What is Democratic Resilience
Image: Steve Sanchez Photos / Shutterstock This paper aims to transform the simple term ‘democratic resilience’ into a more complex analytical concept. Studies of democratic resilience can be seen as a fifth and most recent phase in democratization studies, which deal with systemic transformations: breakdown of democracy, transition to democracy, consolidation of democracy, backsliding of…
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