Globalizing Democracy Protection: Strategies for Researching and Reversing Transnational Trends in Autocratization Working Group

Research on democratic backsliding offers a robust understanding of how aspiring autocrats manipulate democratic institutions and prime the public for illiberal policies. Traditional techniques of election fraud, public sector corruption, or military interventions have given way to new strategies of executive aggrandizement, propaganda, and lawfare. Authoritarian narratives have emerged as powerful tools for legitimation, at home and abroad. The destruction of American foreign aid – through undemocratic means – eliminated support for an estimated 1,300 civil society organizations at a fragile moment in democratic history, undermining shared (if aspirational) global norms for democracy and human rights. This working group aims to (1) explore the weaponization of economic interdependence by authoritarian regimes, whose share of the global economy is growing (2) expand our understanding of the international drivers of autocratization, beyond development aid for soft power and disinformation campaigns for sharp power into the new horizons of transnational repression and “foreign malign influence” (3) identify how the transformation of traditional international organizations and the rise of new regional blocs are lowering the transaction costs of autocratic coordination, and (4) reflect upon the relationship between regimes and neoliberalism, including backlash from the 2008 global economic crisis.

The working group is being co-organized by A. Carl LeVan (American University), Rachel Beatty Riedl (Cornell University), Nic Cheeseman (University of Birmingham), Marianne Kneuer (Dresden University of Technology), Marie-Eve Desrosiers (University of Ottawa), Annika Silva-Leander (International IDEA), and Ibi Kontein (American University). We seek scholars at any level of their career. We especially welcome those who may not be familiar with the democratic erosion literature, such as area studies experts, political psychologists, or scholars of international political economy. We plan to think creatively about scholarly public engagement. The working group will meet at 4:00 pm on Saturday, September 5 in the Brandeis Room at the Marriott Copley Place. To register your interest and receive information about the selected panels and opportunities to meet up, please complete this brief form: https://forms.gle/4NvQs9U9WTfauay29

Schedule:

• Defending Democracy: Political Parties, Institutions, and Society | Thu Sep 3 2026, 10:00 to 11:30am | Hynes, 103
• Democratic Norms, Backsliding, and Resilience | Thu Sep 3 2026, 12:00 to 1:30pm | Westin, Huntington AB
• Regime Type and International Cooperation | Thu Sep 3, 2026, 2:00 to 3:30pm | Marriott, New Hampshire
• Support for Democratic Norms | Thu Sep 3 2026, 4:00 to 5:30pm | Sheraton, Hampton
• Democracy and Autocracy Section Business Meeting | Thu Sep 3 2026, 6:30 to 7:30pm | Sheraton, Fairfax B

FRIDAY

• Protest, Discontent, and Democratic Resistance | Fri Sep 4 2026, 8:00 to 9:30am | Hynes, 203
• Authoritarianism, Repression, and Control Networks | Fri Sep 4 2026, 10:00 to 11:30am | Westin, Newbury Room
• Transnational Repression: The Autocrats’ Playbook | Fri Sep 4 2026, 12:00 to 1:30pm | Sheraton, Back Bay Ballroom A
• Author Meets Critics: “Eroding Democracy from the Outside In: IOs and Democratic Backsliding” | Fri Sep 4 2026, 2:00 to 3:30pm | Hynes, 200
• Populism and International Institutions | Fri Sep 4 2026, 4:00 to 5:30pm | Marriott, Salon H

SATURDAY

• -Rebuilding Democracy in a Shifting International Order | Sat Sep 5 2026, 8:00 to 9:30am | Sheraton, Republic Ballroom B
• Contagious Authoritarianism: Resisting Threats in Fragile Democracies | Sat Sep 5 2026, 10:00 to 11:30am | Sheraton, Back Bay Ballroom C
• Transnational Sources of Democratic Erosion | Sat Sep 5 2026, 12:00 to 1:30pm | Sheraton, Riverway
• Authoritarian Networks and How to Resist Them | Sat Sep 5 2026, 2:00 to 3:30pm | Sheraton, Republic Ballroom B
• Working Group Meeting | Sat Sep 5 2026, 4:00 to 5:30pm | Marriott, Brandeis

Political Scientists for Justice in Palestine Working Group

William Clare Roberts (McGill University) william.roberts3@mcgill.ca

Israel’s war on Gaza and the mass death, starvation, and devastation of civilian infrastructure that it has entailed raise urgent questions for political science. Implications for political processes at the regional and global levels include: the future of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, the Palestinian struggle for freedom and national self-determination, the balance of political power in the Middle East, the viability of international political and legal frameworks, the growth of international solidarity movements (especially on university campuses), and strains on political coalitions in numerous European and North American states.

This working group will encourage the multi-methods study of basic questions about the import of the Palestinian question. Are the foundational moral and political values that have animated both twentieth-century anticolonialism and international law – self-determination, national liberation, sovereignty – still adequate for understanding and responding to the world after Gaza? To what extent do the legal frameworks of international human rights law, humanitarian law, and the law of armed conflict serve as suitable normative baselines today? How should violent and non-violent strategies of resistance be assessed? What are the strategic and normative foundations of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS), the primary form of nonviolent resistance advocated by large parts of Palestinian civil society? What duties and responsibilities does global civil society bear in the face of ongoing genocide and dispossession? These questions span normative, strategic, and conceptual domains while also demanding empirical investigation. Our goal is to critically interrogate and rethink these terms in a rigorous and open-minded manner.

Schedule:

THURSDAY

• Critical Perspectives on the the Anti-Defamation League | Thu, September 3, 8:00 to 9:30am | Hynes, 306
• Rage against the Regime: Protest, Propaganda, and Counter-Narratives | Thu, September 3, 8:00 to 9:30am | Hynes, 209
• Affects and Aesthetics in a Time of Genocide and Fascism | Thu, September 3, 8:00 to 9:30am | Hynes, 304
• Difficult Transitions: Conflict and State-Building in the Arab World | Thu, September 3, 8:00 to 9:30am | Marriott, Salon H
• The Future of Zionism and the Future of Imperialism | Thu, September 3, 10:00 to 11:30am | Hynes, 208
• Critical Theory and the Fractures of Democracy | Thu, September 3, 10:00 to 11:30am | Hynes, 306
• Intersectional Solidarity | Thu, September 3, 12:00 to 1:30pm | Marriott, Dartmouth
• Democracy under Disavowal: Countermobilization, Authoritarianism, Emancipation | Thu, September 3, 4:00 to 5:30pm | Hynes, 306
• Phenomenologies of the Political | Thu, September 3, 4:00 to 5:30pm | Hynes, 309

FRIDAY

• Philosophy, Democracy, Zionism: A Panel in Honor of Professor Shlomo Avineri | Fri, September 4, 8:00 to 9:30am | Hynes, 204
• If It Bleeds, It Leads… to What? War Frames and Public Attitudes | Fri, September 4, 8:00 to 9:30am | Hynes, 209
• Conflict, Identity, and Psychological Responses | Fri, September 4, 4:00 to 5:30pm | Hynes, 310
• Identity and Mobilization: New Perspectives from Palestine, Israel, and Lebanon | Fri, September 4, 4:00 to 5:30pm | Marriott, MIT

SATURDAY

• Beyond Domination in Surveillance and AI | Sat, September 5, 8:00 to 9:30am | Hynes, 102
• Democracy in War: Public Reactions, Condemning Violence, and Perceived Resolve | Sat, September 5, 8:00 to 9:30am | Sheraton, Back Bay Ballroom C
• Is This What Democracy Looks Like? Democratic Politics during and after Gaza | Sat, September 5, 10:00 to 11:30am | Hynes, 304
• Gender, Politics, and Diplomacy in a Comparative Perspective | Sat, September 5, 10:00 to 11:30am | Sheraton, Commonwealth
• Working Group Meeting | Sat Sep 5 2026, 4:00 to 5:30pm | Marriott, Hyannis

SUNDAY

• Authoritarianism Transformed? Autocratic Resilience after the Arab Spring | Sun, September 6, 10:00 to 11:30am | Marriott, Regis