2025/11/20 by Sarah Sunn Bush, Daniela Donno, Jon Pevehouse +1 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Political Conflict and Governance #Gender, Security, and Conflict #Populism, Right-Wing Movements
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0020818325101148
openalex publication_date 2025/11/20 · openalex created_date 2025/11/20 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/10
Abstract In the post–Cold War era, many authoritarian regimes engaged in strategic liberalization in response to international norms promoted by Western powers. As US support for democracy and human rights recedes, will this retreat prompt a global rollback of liberal reforms? While pessimistic accounts predict a return to overt repression, we argue that liberal norm adaptation within autocracies is likely to prove more resilient. We highlight two sources of continuity. First, autocrats’ domestic control strategies create incentives to retain certain liberal practices—such as elections, gender reforms, or limited media openness—that bolster legitimacy, co-opt dissent, and help manage opposition. Second, reforms anchored in treaties, international organizations, and domestic bureaucracies have generated expectations and mobilizational platforms, making wholesale reversals politically costly and prone to backlash. Our analysis illustrates how reforms, even when adopted instrumentally, have become sufficiently embedded in domestic politics to persist in the absence of strong external enforcement.