Illiberal democracies and the power of civil society
The Rise of Illiberal Democracies
Why are we seeing an increasing number of illiberal democracies? A recent paper combined advanced modeling with real-world data to understand why voters might support a liberal vs. an illiberal leader. The researchers start with the fundamental problem of governance: balancing liberty with security. They find that if the system of checks and balances on a liberal government is too strong, it can prevent a liberal leader from reacting to emergencies, which can increase the security threat over the value of liberty and lead voters to prefer an illiberal government. Furthermore, while fluctuations in security threats should make voters alternate between liberal and illiberal leaders, the control of information by illiberal democracies can make security risks always seem high enough to make them prefer illiberalism. By understanding how illiberal democracies rise and use information manipulation to avoid falling, we can better create programming to encourage open democracies which maintain liberty for their people.
Lessons from Indonesia: The Potential of Civil Society and the Threats to its Well-being
One way for society to push back against rising political illiberalism is through the power of the people, often organized or expressed through civil society groups. Taking Indonesia as a case study, this paper shows how civil society groups spear-headed the push for democratization and representation, but also how later governments that were becoming more illiberal recognized that power and were able to strip many powers from civil society organizations while using threats of violence or punishment to limit popular outcry. This paper emphasizes the importance of a healthy civil society as an expression of popular malcontent with illiberal leadership, but also the pitfalls when those civil society organizations are stripped of their powers or removed entirely.
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