Studies on term limits in Africa have proliferated over the past two decades. This introduction to the special issue on the struggle over term limits contributes to advancing the research agenda with ...novel empirical evidence and a rigorous conceptual framework. Moreover, we propose complementing existing work on term limits and democratisation with a more explicit focus on their repercussions for authoritarian rule. Drawing on the comparative lessons of the special issue, we outline how term limits can be theorised as part of the institutional landscape in authoritarian regimes and how third-term bids can be understood as a tool of autocratisation.
Während der letzten zwei Jahrzehnte hat die Forschung zu Amtszeitbeschränkungen in Afrika stark zugenommen. Diese Einleitung zum Sonderheft zu umkämpften Amtszeitbeschränkungen trägt mit neuer empirischer Evidenz und konzeptionellen Überlegungen zur Weiterentwicklung der Forschungsagenda bei. Außerdem argumentieren wir, dass bestehende Arbeiten zu Amtszeitbeschränkungen und Demokratisierung durch eine explizite Analyse derselben im Kontext autoritärer Herrschaft ergänzt werden sollten. Basierend auf den Ergebnissen des Sonderheftes zeigen wir, wie Amtszeitbeschränkungen als Teil der institutionellen Landschaft autoritärer Regime verstanden werden können und wie Versuche von Präsidenten, sich eine dritte Amtszeit zu verschaffen, ein Instrument der Autokratisierung sein können.
Parliament and the separation of power are essential elements of democratic consolidation. However, what role does parliament take if democracy is in retreat? Following a comparative approach, this ...article analyses the role of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) during a process of democratic decline. Indonesia is seen as a success story of democratisation. Since 1998, the country has transitioned from an autocratic regime to a vibrant multi-party democracy. However, twenty years on, academics have been highlighting far-reaching patterns of democratic regression. Whereas there have been studies of the democratic setback globally and more in-depth analyses of aspects of the Indonesian democracy in retreat, there has been little attention on the role of the country's legislature in this situation. This article analyses how the DPR has been executing its legislative mandate during Joko Widodo's second presidential term from 2019 to 2024. Examining three cases of legislation, it found the DPR is not actively resisting the democratic decline. On the contrary, the hypothesis has been proven that the parliament is an active factor in autocratic legalism. This has been most visible in the reduced scrutiny of draft legislation, limited deliberation, and narrow public consultation to serve elite interests. In addition to a weakened legislative role by the DPR, there has been reduced oversight and scrutiny of government policies, visible through limited questioning of ministers or inquiries into the use of the budget and the appointment of government-favoured candidates to national commissions, courts, and state bodies. Moreover, the nature of a consensus-based decision-making system has allowed the executive to effectively control the parliament, instead of the other way around. This is despite some reminders from the Constitutional Court to respect the legal provisions that require deliberation and consultation of the people.
The article examines how the lack of circulation of political elites has contributed to setting up an economic–political system designed to avoid the construction of a political entity and common ...Lebanese identity for fear of losing their traditional role and privileges on the political scene. Toward this, the article provides a general assessment of the Lebanese consociational democracy to understand the elements and factors hampering this form of political governance. Then it delves into the main socio-political factors that allow the triumph of communitocracy. It shows how the lack of circulation on elites, on the one hand, the consociational system on the other, affect democratization and nation-building processes. It throws light on the misbehavior of the Lebanese elites concerning the challenge that democracy and national building represent.
In this article, the author argues that civil society can actively foster anti-democratic agendas that propel young democracies on an autocratic path. Therefore, civil society is not idly coopted by ...regimes as existing studies generally suggest. The author's analysis is drawn on Thailand as an extreme case whose historical roots of authoritarianism, consolidated anti-system elites, protracted polarisation, and extensive repression configure the unique development of authoritarian civil society (ACS). The author demonstrates the components and repertoires of ACS that have induced democratic collapse and subsequently autocratic surge in Thailand. First, anti-election networks' mass mobilisation set the scene for anti-system elites, including the Constitutional Court and the military, to oust democratically elected governments. Second, vigilante groups' digital surveillance and legal harassment have instilled self-censorship that shrinks civic spaces for democratic dialogue, while reinforcing the uneven electoral playing field favourable to the autocratic regime. Lastly, rightwing media that frames pro-democracy civic groups as foreign agents helps boost the regime's justification for restricting the international support for these groups. The author anticipates this article to be an entry point for future comparative research on the conditions and tactics of ACS in other autocratic settings.
Hungary and Poland are often placed in the same analytical framework from the period of their ‘negotiated revolutions’ to their autocratic turn. This article aims to look behind this apparent ...similarity focusing on opposition behaviour. The analysis demonstrates that the executive–parliament power structure, the vigour of the extra-parliamentary actors, and the opposition party frame have the strongest influence on opposition behaviour, and they provide the sources of difference between the two country cases: in Hungary an enforced power game and in Poland a political game constrain opposition opportunities and opposition strategic behaviour.
This final chapter focuses on Middle East and North African (MENA) countries that have experienced negative changes following the Arab Spring. This trend can be placed within the overall context of a ...process of ‘democratic involution’ that has taken place since the start of the twenty-first century, as identified and described by Francis Fukuyama (Fukuyama 2016: 26). The five countries studied here show that the Arab Spring has simply deepened this tendency.
Firstly, Turkey’s evolution from a defective democracy in 2011 into a quasi-competitive and restrictive pluralist authoritarianism is examined (a situation that has been further aggravated since the attempted
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