Join the DRGHub, along with EIRP, for a provocative session exploring The Myth of Democratic Resilience, a powerful new article coauthored by renowned scholar Nic Cheeseman. The piece challenges conventional wisdom that democracies naturally recover after authoritarian setbacks. Drawing on global data and vivid case studies, Cheeseman and his coauthors argue that most post-authoritarian “U-turns” are shallow, short-lived, and vulnerable to relapse. We’ll dig into the three core barriers to lasting democratic recovery: authoritarian legacies, opportunistic pro-democracy coalitions, and a weakening international environment for redemocratization. This conversation will explore how democracy practitioners can respond to this sobering reality and what it would take to truly future-proof democracy in today’s volatile world.

Featured Contributor Nic Cheeseman (@fromagehomme) is Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham and Director of the Centre for Elections, Democracy, Accountability and Representation (CEDAR). Formerly Director of the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, Dr. Cheeseman is a leading authority on democracy, elections, and governance, especially in Africa. His work has won multiple awards including the GIGA prize (2013), the Frank Cass Award (2015), and the Joni Lovenduski Prize for outstanding professional achievement (2019). He is the author or editor of over ten books, including How to Rig an Election (2018), selected as one of the books of the year by The Spectator. His public commentary has appeared in The Economist, Le Monde, The Washington Post, and BBC, among many others. He is a Board Member of Afrobarometer and serves on expert panels for the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and the Bertelsmann Transformation Index. He also co-edits the platform www.democracyinafrica.org, a hub for democratic analysis and insight.

This event is co-hosted by DRGHub and EIRP.