Elite polarization and democratic backsliding in Tunisia: tracing agency-driven mechanisms
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- dc.contributor.author Rivera Escartin, Adrià
- dc.date.accessioned 2024-05-14T09:39:35Z
- dc.date.embargoEnd info:eu-repo/date/embargoEnd/2025-06-03
- dc.date.issued 2024
- dc.description.abstract Recent research has identified a strong correlation between polarization and democratic backsliding. The creation of antithetical groups in society is a necessary element in this type of autocratization process. Nevertheless, the agency-driven mechanisms through which elite polarization becomes harmful for democracy have been less explored in the literature. By resorting to process tracing methodology, the article analyses how elite polarization contributed to derailing the democratization process in Tunisia. The article identifies three necessary mechanisms through which elite polarization became a risk for democracy: politicization reinforcing pre-existing party cleavages; exclusion politics based on ontological contestation (“either us or them”); and the systematic delegitimization of democratic institutions and processes. In Tunisia, Parti Destourien Libre’s (PDL) political campaign followed these steps creating the context in which President Saied could start a democratic backsliding process.
- dc.embargo.liftdate 2025-06-03
- dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
- dc.identifier.citation Rivera-Escartin A. Elite polarization and democratic backsliding in Tunisia: tracing agency-driven mechanisms. Democratization. 2024;31(4):871-90. DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2023.2284873
- dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2023.2284873
- dc.identifier.issn 1351-0347
- dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/60139
- dc.language.iso eng
- dc.publisher Taylor & Francis
- dc.relation.ispartof Democratization. 2024;31(4):871-90
- dc.rights © This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Democratization on 2024, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13510347.2023.2284873.
- dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess
- dc.subject.keyword Polarization
- dc.subject.keyword Democratic backsliding
- dc.subject.keyword Process tracing
- dc.subject.keyword Tunisia
- dc.subject.keyword Political transitions
- dc.title Elite polarization and democratic backsliding in Tunisia: tracing agency-driven mechanisms
- dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
- dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion