Symposium Info – The Global Authoritarian Wave and How to Reverse It / Larry Diamond

【Keynote Lecture】

Topic: The Global Authoritarian Wave and How to Reverse It

Speaker: Prof. Larry Diamond / William L. Clayton Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution

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Beginning around 2006, the world fell into a democratic recession that has now lasted for two decades, morphing into a “third reverse wave of authoritarianism.”

During this period, levels of freedom have declined in every region of the world, and many of the world’s most influential democracies have experienced democratic backsliding and even a descent into some form of authoritarian rule. The most common form of democratic deterioration has involved rising political polarization and the emergence of illiberal populist leaders and parties who, on taking power, have eroded checks on executive power, civil liberties, and the rule of law. The trend has affected not only major emerging market democracies but also advanced democracies like the United States. This presentation documents the trend, explains its causes, and identifies the strategies needed to halt the authoritarian slide and renew democratic momentum. Political parties and civil society actors in backsliding countries must unite around political strategies and coalitions to defeat populist authoritarianism, and the wealthy and powerful democracies of Europe, North America, and East Asia must develop new initiatives, confidence, and resolve to counter the shift in global power to autocracies like China and Russia.

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About Speaker

Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). He is also Professor by Courtesy of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford. He co-chairs the Hoover Institution’s project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region with Admiral (Ret.) James O. Ellis, Jr. He has co-edited several books on Taiwan and has visited the country regularly since 1995.

Diamond’s research focuses on democratic trends and conditions around the world and on policies and reforms to defend and advance democracy. His book, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, analyzes the challenges confronting liberal democracy at this potential “hinge in history.” He is author of six other books, including The Spirit of Democracy and Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation, and he has edited or co-edited 55 other books.

Diamond served from 1990 to 2022 as the founding coeditor of the Journal of Democracyand co-chaired the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy from 1994 to 2009. From 2009 to 2015 he served as Director of Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.

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