2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Transitions within Democracy: Institutions, Interests, and Accountability
| Project/Area Number |
20K01457
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
Kellam Marisa.A 早稲田大学, 政治経済学術院, 准教授 (30711866)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2025-03-31
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| Keywords | Comparative Politics / Democracy / Democratic Backsliding / Populism / Political Institutions |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
I completed one important component of this research project which is a global analysis of the causes of democratic backsliding in 98 democratic countries between 1970 and 2020. The analysis is based on matching methods to infer the causal effects of several ideological and institutional factors related to executives. The findings demonstrate that populist orientations of executives increase, on average, the amount of democratic backsliding. While case studies and regional analyses have previously pointed to populism’s determinantal effect on democracy, this is the first global analysis to support these claims with rigorous empirical evidence.
Based on this research, I co-authored a research paper titled “Who’s to blame for democratic backsliding: populists, presidents or dominant executives?” with my research collaborator, Antonio Benasaglio Berlucchi (Graduate School of Political Science, Waseda University). I presented this paper at the Midwest Political Science Association meeting in April 2022 and at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law in May 2022. We submitted the paper for review in August 2022 to the journal Democratization and it was accepted for publication in March 2023. Democratization has an impact factor of 3.339 and is known among scholars and practitioners as a leading outlet for current research on democratic backsliding.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Although I canceled the initial field work component of this project due to the coronavirus pandemic, the remainder of the work is proceeding as expected.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Having completed the global analysis of democratic backsliding, this research project will now focus on explaining changes within democracies that do not entail declines in democracy but do alter the nature of representation and accountability. To do so, I will continue with data collection on 31 third-wave democracies (transition between 1978 and 2000) from Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. I will proceed with qualitative comparisons and quantitative analysis based on cluster analysis techniques. I will complete a paper draft this year and apply to present this paper at international conferences next year.
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| Causes of Carryover |
I plan to use the incurring research funds for research assistance with data collection and data analysis. I also plan to use the funds to attend international academic conferences.
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