Banca de DEFESA: IAN REBOUÇAS BATISTA

Uma banca de DEFESA de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : IAN REBOUÇAS BATISTA
DATE: 09/01/2024
TIME: 14:00
LOCAL: zoom meeting 831 1222 1112
TITLE:
KEY WORDS:

political regimes; democracy; democratic backsliding; electoral autocracy; elections; electoral manipulation

PAGES: 202
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: Ciência Política
SUMMARY:

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how democracy can be undermined by democratically
elected leaders. Specifically, it examines the actions and measures that these leaders implement to
achieve their goals of autocratizing the regime,with respect to the most fundamental democratic
institution, the electoral process. A regime is characterized as electoral autocracy when it does not
suppress the holding of periodic elections for the choice of the executive leader, but where the
elections fail to promote a genuine, free, and fair competition for power. This thesis identifies and
studies 35 transitions from democracy to electoral autocracy, which took place between 1990 and
2021, where leaders deviated from values cherished by democracy. The central argument of this
work is to identify the electoral process as the threshold in the transition between democracy and
electoral autocracy, and from this, to investigate and categorize types of autocratization based on
the tactics and strategies implemented that target the manner in which power is contested. Seeking
to differentiate mainly between strategies of democratic backsliding that bias the electoral
competition months before the election and tactics of electoral fraud implemented on voting day,
this work tests the hypotheses that related to these distinct paths are the electoral institutions, the
institutional relationship of the Executive with other powers, and the mobilization of civil society.
The qualitative investigation of the 35 cases allows for the classification of transitions into:
Democratic Backsliding, Electoral Manipulation, and State Violence. Based on this, a quantitative
investigation through multinomial regression and case studies allows us to identify that elements
such as the opposition's performance in the Legislature and the mobilization of civil society in
support of the government correspond to conditions that allow, respectively, to prevent or permit
the leader to implement a process of democratic backsliding.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Interno - 1145313 - RICARDO BORGES GAMA NETO
Interna - 1714749 - GABRIELA DA SILVA TAROUCO
Externo ao Programa - 1683272 - MAURO VICTORIA SOARES - UFPEExterna à Instituição - LORENA GUADALUPE BARBERIA - USP
Externo à Instituição - CONRADO HUBNER MENDES - USP
Externo à Instituição - RODRIGO MARTINS DA SILVA - UFPE
Externa à Instituição - CARLA SOFIA FRANCO LUÍS
Externa à Instituição - KELLY CRISTINA COSTA SOARES - UFCG