OOIR: Observatory of International Research

Papers

(The TQCC of Democratization is 3. The table below lists those papers that are above that threshold based on CrossRef citation counts [max. 250 papers]. The publications cover those that have been published in the past four years, i.e., from 2021-11-01 to 2025-11-01.)

Article	Citations
Dictatorship and information: authoritarian regime resilience in communist Europe and China	104
The authoritarian international. Tracing how authoritarian regimes learn in the post-soviet space	66
The two genotypes of secession. Explaining non-nationalist independence claims in federal-authoritarian regimes	58
Power and progress: our thousand-year struggle over technology and prosperity	45
The European Parliament’s democracy promotion activities in the face of autocratization in South America: the cases of Bolivia and Venezuela	43
Who tolerates democratic backsliding? A mosaic approach to voters’ responses to authoritarian leadership in Hungary	41
Democracy promotion in times of autocratization: a conceptual note	41
Delegative democratic attitude and public opinion on human rights: empirical evidence from the Philippines	34
Digital authoritarianism in the Middle East: deception, disinformation and social media Digital authoritarianism in the Middle East: deception, disinformation and social media	24
Political voice: protest, democracy, and marginalised groups	24
Formal power in informal networks. Distribution of power resources in personalized bureaucracies: the case of Russia’s subnational elites	21
A tale of two cities: spillover effects of electoral shocks in non-democratic regimes	21
How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs: The Syrian Congress of 1920 and the Destruction of its Liberal-Islamic Alliance	20
The king’s speeches: environmental sustainability as a discursive legitimation project in autocracies. Evidence from Morocco.	20
Polarization, fragmentation, and democratic deconsolidation in interwar Europe	19
Personalist ruling parties in democracies	18
Weak agency and preferences for participatory democracy: discourses of Spanish people in positions of socioeconomic disadvantage	18
Inching toward democratization? Comparing Cuba’s National Assembly elections, 2018 and 2023	17
New perspectives on international party assistance	17
Radical movement-parties, political change and the epistemology of elections: evidence from Lebanon	17
Patterns of incumbents’ repression during autocratization	17
Soldiers of democracy? Military legacies and the Arab Spring	16
Casting a new light on the democratic spectator	15
Ramping up control: how judicial harassment and online smear campaigns work in tandem to limit dissent in Thailand	14
Brilliant tragedy? Electoral effects of environmental protest cycle in autocracy	14

What is a “regime”? Three definitions and their implications for the future of regime studies	12
Legislating Islam: Islamists’ and Salafis’ Distinct paths of moderation in the Kuwaiti parliament	12
The spirit of populism: sacred, charismatic, redemptive, and apocalyptic dimensions	12
Shock to the system: Coups, elections, and war on the road to democratization	11
Routledge handbook of EU-Middle East relations	11
Transnational repression in the age of globalization	11
Local power play: the post-election repression and local governance	11
Looking beyond democratic backsliding: analysing the political economy context of Turkey’s regime trajectory through a mode of participation approach	11
After the Arab Uprisings. Progress and Stagnation in the Middle East	11
Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarism: Democratic Design and the Separation of Powers	11
Mnemonic politics among Philippine voters: a social media measurement approach	10
Dark politics	10
Wealth, power, and authoritarian institutions: comparing dominant parties and parliaments in Tanzania and Uganda	10
Geopolitics and democracy: the Western liberal order from foundation to fracture	10
When elites concede: state capacity and the management of protest in Mexico	10
Resistance to populism	9
Democracy and Nationalism in Southeast Asia. From secessionist mobilization to conflict resolution	9
A people power philosophy: republican ideology in opposition in Tanzania	8
Gaming democracy: how Silicon Valley leveled up the far right	8
Not Islamists, Muslim democrats: Tunisian Ennahda ’s path of ideological moderation (2011–2018)	8
“Politics unusual”? Bobi Wine, People Power, and the ideology of popular opposition in Uganda	8
When autocratization is reversed: episodes of U-Turns since 1900	8
Militant democracy and the pre-emptive constitution: from party bans to hardened term limits	8
Authoritarian gravity centers a cross-regional study of authoritarian promotion and diffusion	8
How security shaped Libya’s transition	8
Fading freedoms: democratic decline in Albania	8
The Druze vote in Israel: between ideology, socioeconomic status, kinship, and the Nation-State Basic Law	7
Democratization, state capacity and developmental correlates of international artificial intelligence trade	7
Property without rights. Origins and consequences of the property rights gap	7
Why do some coups lead to democratization?	7
Revolution and dictatorship. The violent origins of durable authoritarianism	7
Explaining judges’ opposition when judicial independence is undermined: insights from Poland, Romania, and Hungary	7
The relationship between affective polarization and democratic backsliding: comparative evidence	7
On motives and means: how approach and justification for court-curbing impact public trust	7
Tanzania under Magufuli: the personalization of a party-based regime	7
The COVID-19 pandemic and popular confidence in democracy: evidence from China, Japan, and South Korea	7
Political trust and attitudes toward civil disobedience: evidence from Taiwan	7
Public broadcasting and democracy’s defense: responses to far-right parties in Germany and Sweden	7
Academic freedom and the onset of autocratization	7
Where do social media and education meet? A closer look at understanding of democracy	6
Who’s to blame for democratic backsliding: populists, presidents or dominant executives?	6
The geography of autocracy. Regime preferences along the rural-urban divide in 32 countries	6
Explaining the failure of legislative agency in patronal divided executives: deputy meaning making and its impact on legislative quality in Kyrgyzstan 2010–2020	6
Populism and civil–military relations	6
Job insecurity, economic resources, and democratic backsliding: evidence from South Korea	6
Political plasticity: the future of democracy and dictatorship	6
Alternative patterns to electoral autocracy: recognizing diversity in contemporary autocratization processes	6
Democracy rules	6
Hailing the State: Indian Democracy Between Elections	6
China’s influence and the center-periphery Tug of War in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indo-Pacific China’s influence and the center-periphery Tug of War in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indo-Pacific	6

Information, doubt, and democracy: how digitization spurs democratic decay	6
Why is party-based autocracy more durable? Examining the role of elite institutions and mass organization	6
Enchanted Revolution: Ghosts, Shamans, and Gender Politics in Chinese Communist Propaganda, 1942–1953	6
Coups, rivals, and the modern state: why rural coalitions matter in sub-Saharan Africa Coups, rivals, and the modern state: why rural coalitions matter in sub-Saharan Africa	6
The conflict within: the politics of parliamentary election management in Iran	5
Declining Democracy in East-Central Europe: The Divide in the EU and Emerging Hard Populism; Awakening Europe in the Triple Global Crisis: The Birth Pangs of the Emerging Europe	5
State of the world 2022: defiance in the face of autocratization	5
The mechanisms of personalization	5
Authoritarian collaboration and repression in the digital age: balancing foreign direct investment and control in internet infrastructure	5
Public attitudes toward external democracy promotion in Africa	5
Civil society’s democratic potential	5
Changing the rules to win the game again: does presidential term-limit evasion affect measures of electoral integrity?	5
Individual or collective rights? Consequences for the satisfaction with democracy among Indigenous peoples in Latin America	5
The political economy of digital authoritarianism: evidence from the Iranian regime’s implementation of technology	5
Electoral Reform and Democracy in Malaysia	5
Opening up the notion of “closing space”: accounting for normative, actor, and political system diversity	5
Evaluating Europe's push to enact AI regulations: how will this influence global norms?	5
Political polarization in Korea	5
Stalker states: Are democracies more likely to snoop on citizens’ data on Facebook?	5
The crisis of democracy? Chances, risks, and challenges in Japan (Asia) and Germany (Europe) The crisis of democracy? Chances, risks, and challenges in Japan (Asia) and Germany (Europe)	5
Trust under threat: challenges in a digital society	5
Gateway to dissent: the role of pro-Palestine activism in opposition to authoritarianism	5
When reorganizing coercion backfires: explaining the mechanisms of revolt in Sudan and Algeria	4
Sociology of corruption: patterns of illegal association in Hungary	4
On the effectiveness of democracy aid in post-civil war recipient countries	4
Protesting for autocracy: economic vulnerability and anti-democratic protest attendance in Tunisia	4
The longer the worse? The case of populism, anti-pluralism, and constitutional compliance	4
Challenging the rules of the game: clientelism and dissent in the Middle East	4
The modern manual of authoritarian leadership	4
Activism in the era of democratic backsliding: explaining the efficacy of the clean-air campaigns in Poland	4
Patterns of democratic backsliding in third-wave democracies: a sequence analysis perspective	4
Transnational securitization and violence: the discursive mechanism behind the pro-AKP diaspora’s repression of the dissident diaspora groups in the West	4
Competing demand-side explanations and populism: cross-national variation in a recursive ideational system	4
Coming out of the liberal closet. Think tanks and de-democratization in Poland	4
Quietist Salafism and survival: pious politics in Morocco and Algeria	4
Lobbying the autocrat: the dynamics of policy advocacy in nondemocracies	4
The Authoritarian Divide: populism, propaganda, and polarization	4
What do you call the political upheaval? The conceptual linkage between revolutions and coups	4
Electoral integrity resilience: protecting elections during global risks, crises, and emergencies	4
Is community service an act of political resistance? the “community pantry” phenomenon in the Philippines and voter behaviour	4
Blood gambit: how autocratizing populists fuel ethnic conflict to reverse election setbacks – evidence from Turkey and Israel	4
Weak party system institutionalization and autocratization: evidence from Tunisia	4
Legalizing control: the rise of restrictive internet regulation in sub-Saharan Africa	4
The culture of democracy – a sociological approach to civil society	3
Elite strategy in resilient authoritarianism: Equatorial Guinea, 1979–2023	3
Power and politics in Africa: a boundary generator	3
Strategic responses to autocratization in international democracy promotion	3
Militarized elections and citizens’ support for democratic rights: evidence from India	3
Online repression and tactical evasion: evidence from the 2020 Day of Anger protests in Egypt	3
The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule , by Johannes Gerschewski, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2023, 297 pp., £85.00 (hardcover),	3
Repressing in the name of? Externalization dynamics in Turkey’s use of digital repression against refugees	3
German political foundations’ democracy promotion in autocratizing Tanzania: opening spaces for civil society support and transnational learning	3
What does the population in Niger think about a military government?	3
Pastoral power, clerical state. Pentecostalism, gender, and sexuality in Nigeria Pastoral power, clerical state. Pentecostalism, gender, and sexuality in Nigeria , by Eb	3
Facing protests in Serbia: patterns of new competitive authoritarianism	3
Proportional representation and party fragmentation in electoral autocracies	3
Measuring and assessing subnational electoral democracy: a new dataset for the Americas and India	3
Waiting for Dignity: Legitimacy and Authority in Afghanistan	3
Social dictatorships: the political economy of the welfare state in the Middle East and North Africa	3
Why do autocracies enfranchise their citizens abroad? A large-N event history analysis, 1990–2010	3
Demographic structure and voting behaviour during democratization: evidence from Malaysia’s 2022 election	3
Techno-authoritarian imaginaries and the politics of resistance against facial recognition technology in the US and European Union*	3
Do mutually reinforcing cleavages harm democracy? Inequalities between ethnic groups and autocratization	3
Malaysia’s democratic deficit: why youth may not be the answer	3
Ideological beasts or effective organizations? Do voters’ views of democracy affect their expectations of political parties?	3
The personalization of government: concept and comparative analysis	3
The Arab Winter: Democratic Consolidation, Civil War, and Radical Islamists	3
Governance resilience in China: informal control, repressive welfare, and cultural experimentation The art of political control in China , by Daniel C. Mattingly, Cambri	3
Party proliferation and political contestation in Africa: Senegal in comparative perspective	3