Distinguished Professor Ali Riaz and Politics and Government alum Sohel Rana, M.S. ’21, have published a paper on contemporary democratic backsliding. The paper, “Democratic Erosion in Comparative Contexts: Evidence from Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, and Pakistan,” is published in the Journal of Governance, Security & Development. Employing Larry Diamond’s regime categorization, the paper examines the characteristics of the systems of governance of these four countries and their debilitating democratic conditions.
Riaz and Rana argue that all four countries have suffered from a democracy deficit for an extended period, and they continue to face the same predicament. The paper also demonstrates that there has been a disturbing trend of erosion in the democratic qualities of these countries during the period from 2010-2020. The authors insist that with no significant improvement in their overall democracy, the future of democracy in these countries is at stake.
In other news, Riaz has also published an article on the role of intellectuals in the context of global decline of democracy and the emergence of autocratic regimes. The article, “What Role for Intellectuals in Autocratic Era” argues that intellectuals must speak truth to power.
