The Arab Spring put several revolutions in motion in the Middle East and North Africa. However, Tunisia was the only country that succeeded with a democratization process, making the country a fairly new democracy. Simultaneously, independent research networks and organizations whose main focus is democracy and democratic values such as Freedom House, V-Demand the Arab Barometer are presenting worrying information about democracy around the world. Democracy is in crises - evident by the remarkable decline or erosion in democratic norms and practices. While scholars have already begun investigating the causes of democratic deconsolidation or backsliding in the context of western democracies, notably those of western Europe and the US, still little is known with regards to new democracies from other parts of the globe. To fill this research gap, this qualitative case study focuses on Tunisia, with the core objective to investigate whether or not Tunisia is experiencing democratic deconsolidation. By using the three criteria described by the political scientist Yascha Mounk in his deconsolidation theory, the result suggests that while democratic values are still quite strong amongst the Tunisian citizens, it is evident that a majority of the Tunisian citizens are experiencing institutional dissatisfaction and low institutional trust.

This thesis investigates the reasons behind democratic backsliding by looking at the past 15 years of democratic development in Poland and Hungary, two backsliding countries, and comparing it with Czech Republic, a country that has not faced severe democratic backsliding. Previous research has pointed to many different possible reasons for backsliding but there is no agreement on theoretical explanations, especially not for backsliding in countries that were previously perceived as having consolidated democracy. This study uses Linz and Stepans five arenas of consolidated democracy and compares Poland, Hungary, and Czech Republic through a most similar systems design in order to identify the arenas that can explain the democratic backsliding. In the second part of the analysis, these identified arenas -  civil society and rule of law - are more closely investigated over the 15-year time span in order to find what happened in Poland and Hungary and how it differs from what happened in Czech Republic. The study concludes that it is the combination of structurally insufficient democratic institutions and agents willing to abuse these structural deficits that lead to democratic backsliding. Further research is encouraged to identify other important arenas and include more countries in the comparison in order to strengthen any findings.

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This study analyzes the global impact of democratic backsliding on gender equality through cross-section regression analysis. As a wave of democratic backsliding is spreading around the world, scholars have started to notice a backlash against gender equality as well. Since these changes seem to happen simultaneously, the question is whether they are interrelated. Very little research has been done within this area, and the impact of democratic backsliding on gender equality is still relatively unknown. This study contributes to the understanding through a quantitative study analyzing the effect of democratic backsliding on gender equality on a global scale. The analysis is carried out in two steps. First, the impact of democratic backsliding on women as a group is analyzed. Secondly, the impact of democratic backsliding on gender equality in terms of relative power distribution between men and women is analyzed to find out whether de-democratizing is affecting women particularly hard. The results show that democratic backsliding is affecting women negatively. However, no impact can be confirmed on gender equality in terms of power distribution between women and men, which suggests that recent developments are likely explained by regional and contextual factors rather than democratic backsliding.

This paper investigates the interplay between pernicious polarization, autonomy of civil society - here called civil society capture, and liberal democracy in Central and Eastern Europe from 2006 to 2020. In the absence of prior time-series data on pernicious polarization and civil society capture, this study built and analysed a dataset of these variables across the region, testing six hypotheses. The findings confirm that both pernicious polarization and civil society capture exhibited an increase during the study period across most CEE countries, the findings also confirm hypotheses linking polarization/civil society capture with democracy, revealing a negative correlation between these variables and liberal democracy. Moreover, a qualitative analysis conducted on four countries highlighted mechanisms through which polarization might contribute to democratic decline. Factors such as the depth of polarization, divisive rhetoric, and sociocultural divides emerged as crucial elements in potentially fuelling democratic backsliding.

Democratic backsliding is a growing threat against peace in Europe. In the 1990s, Europeunderwent extensive democratization, including Poland and Hungary, who were painted asexemplary in the transition. In recent years, however, the countries have shown the opposite development and are today the two countries in Europe that have the fastest declining democracy. The aim of this thesis is to understand this phenomenon and investigate the democratic developmentin Poland and Hungary through process tracing from the end of World War II to the year 2020. To do so, the theory of political culture is applied to elaborate the explanations of the development. Furthermore, there is a need to do further research concerning democratic backsliding in Poland and Hungary as they are often considered equals in the academic debate. Additionally, the purpose ofthis thesis is therefore to rebut this inaccurate presentation of the countries. The results are achieved by using process tracking and most different design as main methods. Thefindings of the thesis are based on the results of the analysis, concluding that the anti-democraticdevelopments in Poland and Hungary do indeed have differences. Through the process tracking, differences are found in the explanatory variables. The countries have similar critical events whichhave shaped the countries collective memory differently. This difference is also found in how the parties have created legitimacy among the population.

There is currently a global trend of democratic backsliding. The term democratic backsliding refers to the process in which a country undergoes a transition towards more authoritarian values and behavior. This process can weaken the democratic norms and institutions and can occur in democratic, hybrid, and nondemocratic regimes. Many countries around the world have been displaying nondemocratic tendencies for decades, but democratic backsliding is also transpiring in countries that have been democratic for an extended period of time. One country that has experienced forms of democratic backsliding is the United States of America, especially under the presidency of Donald Trump. The aim of this essay is to determine what authoritarian behavior Donald Trump engaged in during his presidential term from 2016 to 2020.  The theory on democratic backsliding by Bermeo as well as the four warning signs of authoritarian behavior by Levitsky and Ziblatt will be applied to conduct the research. The study is a qualitative case study, investigating each year of Donald Trump’s presidency. The results of this study indicate that Donald Trump did engage in authoritarian behavior during his presidential term.

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Sexuality-driven political participation refers to the political engagement of people of sexual minorities. While progress has been made in understanding the motivation behind their political participation, this study seeks to address the limitations of the existing literature which are designed explicitly to work in democratic contexts where engagement can bear fruit and for mostly quantitative inquiries which imply homogeneity and fail to map out the heterogeneity in the meanings of sexual minorities’ political participation. To fill these gaps, this thesis aims to answer the following question: how do sexual minorities make sense of their political participation in an increasingly undemocratic context? To explore the plurality of meanings that sexual minorities attach to their political participation in a context where democracy is under threat and homophobia is persistent, I conducted in-depth individual interviews and focus groups with 16 politically active LGBT+ citizens in Hungary. Through qualitative meaning-centred content analysis and with the help of deductively developed analytical lenses, I found that while existing theories can explain to a great degree the meanings that sexual minorities attached to their political participation in increasingly undemocratic contexts, this thesis also sheds light on the multifaceted drivers of political engagement. This includes not solely social identity and discrimination but also a broader pursuit of justice, civil liberties, democracy, and empathy. Overall, the paper makes an important contribution to a more in-depth understanding of the political participation of LGBT+ citizens, highlighting the complex and multifaceted motivations behind their engagement.

The thesis studies the most recent debate on the issue of democratic backsliding in Hungary, and more specifically, if a rhetoric of inaction was dominant in the plenary debate of the European Parliament. Democratic backsliding is a crucial topic to research in the context of the European Parliament’s recent attempts to take a more active role in defending the European  Union’s fundamental values. The different type of rhetoric used by the European Parliament’s eight party groups makes the political clash over Hungary even more interesting. In this thesis, the type of rhetoric and empirical basis used by the party groups will be described. The study finds that the majority of party groups in the European Parliament use a rhetoric of action towards the democratic backsliding in Hungary despite prior research arguing against such a pattern. Moreover, the most common empirical basis being used, is democracy and rule-oflaw. These results are intriguing because they address an important research gap in the literature on EU institutions and action on Hungary.