ABSTRACT
This chapter is divided into two sections. It first provides a broad overview of the global state of democracy, drawing on data from various institutions which follow the trends and patterns of democracy, such as Freedom House and the Varieties of Democracy Institute, and critically examines the available literature on democratic backsliding and autocratization. It shows that the number of people living under democracy has decreased since 2006. Available literature has addressed the causes, processes, and consequences of this phenomenon. Upon further examination of the literature on processes of democratic backsliding, however, the chapter then argues that existing frameworks have been deficient in addressing the issues of ideology and external factors and have an institutional bias. The chapter suggests four elements to the backsliding processes: institutions, media, ideology, and external actors.
