Part of the wiki, which expands the main guide. Every factual claim on the linked pages cites a specific, checkable source.
Regime Types: How Democracy Is MeasuredHow researchers classify political systems as closed autocracies, electoral autocracies, electoral democracies, or liberal democracies, using the Regimes of the World framework behind V-Dem's reports.Competitive AuthoritarianismSteven Levitsky and Lucan Way's concept of hybrid regimes in which real elections take place but incumbents abuse state power so heavily that the system is authoritarian rather than democratic.Autocratic LegalismKim Lane Scheppele's term for elected leaders who use electoral mandates and constitutional and legal change to dismantle the constitutional systems they inherited.Democratic Backsliding and Executive AggrandizementNancy Bermeo's influential definition of democratic backsliding and her finding that gradual executive aggrandizement and strategic election manipulation have replaced classic coups.Stealth AuthoritarianismOzan Varol's concept of authoritarians who perpetuate power through the same legal mechanisms that exist in democracies, cloaking repression in the veneer of law.Spin DictatorsSergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman's model of modern autocrats who rely on manipulating information rather than mass violence, presenting themselves as democrats.Self-Coup (Autogolpe)A self-coup, or autogolpe, is an incumbent leader's unconstitutional seizure of extra powers, such as dissolving the legislature or suspending the courts, with backing from the security forces.