Democracy Under Siege: Resilience, Backsliding, and Governance in a Multipolar World

Across regions, democracies are experiencing profound transformations shaped by political polarization, declining public trust, institutional fragility, economic inequality, and growing uncertainty in the international environment. While some political systems have demonstrated remarkable resilience by adapting to new social and political pressures, others have witnessed democratic erosion through the gradual weakening of institutions, constraints on civil liberties, and the concentration of executive power. These developments raise fundamental questions about the future of democratic governance and the conditions under which democratic institutions can endure, adapt, or decline.
This panel explores democracy as an evolving system of governance rather than a fixed institutional model. It seeks to advance theoretical and empirical debates on democratic resilience, democratic backsliding, institutional innovation, and governance in an increasingly complex global environment. Contributions examining both established and emerging democracies are welcome, with particular attention to comparative perspectives from the Global South and regions where democratic transitions remain incomplete or contested.
The panel encourages interdisciplinary approaches that investigate how governments, institutions, political actors, and civil society respond to uncertainty while preserving—or failing to preserve—democratic principles. Rather than treating democratic decline as inevitable, the panel invites critical reflection on the mechanisms that strengthen democratic accountability, legitimacy, representation, and public trust under conditions of rapid political, economic, technological, and societal change.