The Unintended Consequences of Democracy Promotion: International Organizations and Democratic Backsliding

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, international organizations (IOs) have engaged in unprecedented levels of democracy promotion, and research overwhelmingly links them to positive democratic outcomes. However, this increased emphasis on democracy has more recently been accompanied by rampant illiberalism and a sharp rise in cases of democratic backsliding in new democracies. What explains democratic backsliding in an age of unparalleled international support for democracy? Backsliding occurs when democratic institutions are weakened or eroded by elected officials, resulting in an illiberal or diminished form of democracy. I argue that IOs that support democracy unintentionally make backsliding more likely by neglecting to promote democratic institutions other than executives and elections, increasing executive power, and limiting states’ domestic policy options, which stunts institutional development. I find membership in IOs associated with democracy promotion makes backsliding more likely, decreases checks on executive power, and limits domestic policy options and party development in new democracies.

Oposición en los márgenes: Estrategias contra la erosión de la democracia en Colombia y Venezuela

“…Para poder alcanzar metas políticas, dichos presidentes tratan de aumentar sus poderes y permanecer en su cargo. Para ello, podrían cerrar el congreso; sin embargo, las sanciones internacionales aumentan los incentivos para mantener una fachada democrática (Meyerrose, 2020). Con el fin de evitar una respuesta internacional negativa, los presidentes prefieren, por el contrario, adoptar reformas constitucionales sucesivas.…”

Does aid support democracy? A systematic review of the literature

“…Many others were bound by available or consistent data from their data sources. The longest time frame spanned from 1946 to 2015 (Meyerrose 2020). Some studies note that the period of analysis may be important for findings, but most did not spend too much discussion on this in their analysis.…”

“…Preliminary patterns suggest that aid given specifically by multilateral organizations is effective and positive (see, e.g., Birchler et al 2016;Nelson and Wallace 2012;Poast and Urpelainen 2015); only Meyerrose (2020) suggests that aid from multilateral organizations negatively impacts democracy. Meanwhile, aid from bilateral donors appears to be less effective, as individual donors are less likely to be associated with positive outcomes (Okada and Samreth 2012).…”

Assaults on capitalism and democratic backsliding: Evidence from Asia

“…In key works on democratic backsliding and outright breakdowns of recent years, there has been a near total absence of discussions of a weakening of capitalism as a potential explanation. Instead, the focus has been on domestic political dynamics (Bermeo, 2016;Daly, 2019;Pérez-Liñán et al, 2019;Waldner and Lust, 2018) and international politics (Hess and Aidoo, 2019;Kelemen and Blauberger, 2017;Meyerrose, 2020).…”