The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies

by Susan C. Stokes

Why democracy is under assault across the globe by the leaders entrusted to preserve it

Democracies around the world are getting swept up in a wave of democratic erosion. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, two dozen presidents and prime ministers have attacked their countries' democratic institutions, violating political norms, aggrandizing their own powers, and often trying to overstay their terms in office.

The...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691271542
• ISBN13: 9780691271545
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 226 Pages