The discussion will be held in both Arabic and English, with interpretation available on Zoom only.

You can register to attend by following this link. You will receive a Zoom confirmation email should your registration be successful. Alternatively, you can watch the event live here on our Facebook page.

At the global level, the past two decades have seen both a multiplication and diversification of the phenomenon of incumbent-led autocratization, whereby democratically elected leaders rollback institutional checks to consolidate power. While earlier cases (such as Turkey, Hungary, and Venezuela) seemed to indicate a fairly standard pathway, marked by high levels of popular support to leaders espousing anti-establishment political projects and the exploitation of institutional loopholes to provide a veneer of legality, more recent cases demonstrate that de-democratization also occurs in cases where incumbents enjoy only minoritarian support or do not benefit from dominant ruling parties. Similarly, while earlier cases demonstrated a gradual or sequential process of democratic backsliding, recent examples such as Tunisia reveal how would-be autocrats can enact sudden regime change through mechanisms such as constitutional overhauls. Unpacking how elected leaders proceed to de-democratize their political systems and secure their hold on power is important not only for comparative autocratization studies, but also for identifying opportunities for democratic resistance and how various actors can defend and reestablish democratic institutions.

In dialogue with other examples from around the world, this this webinar will compare Tunisia’s autocratization trajectory with other cases to better understand the similarities and differences it presents. In addition, the webinar will explore recent cases of successful democratic resistance by political and social actors to identify their strategies and the pathways back to democracy across different regime types.