Opposition Political Party Approaches and International Assistance Against Democratic Backsliding

Abstract

This quick review synthesises the literature from academic, policy and knowledge institutions sources on the approaches that opposition political parties use to increase democratic spaces when operating in non-democratic settings. The literature showed that “democratic backsliding” is on the rise worldwide, limiting the rights of political parties, independent media and civil society organisations. Democratic backsliding is partly attributed to the increasing influence of authoritarian regimes in their regions and beyond, like Russia, China and Saudi Arabia (Burnell, 2017). On the other hand, Klaas (2016) showed that the Western democracies are not coherent in their actions as governments in Washington, London and Brussels chase pyrrhic short-term economic and security victories. The literature showed that authoritarian regimes increasingly obey to formal rules of the game, which Uribe Burcher and Bisarya (2017) call ‘modern democratic backsliding’. This opens some (although limited) opportunities in which to challenge authoritarian regimes’ power through legislative processes and elections. However, research is not abundant on political party development in non-democratic settings. There seems to be more emphasis in research on how authoritarian regimes operate and maintain power, than how opposition forces work in periods of increased oppression.