Administrative backsliding

Abstract

Democratic administration can be conceived as a political institution of the state in its own right. As part of executive government democratic administration is exposed to backsliding pressures at an early stage of autocratization trajectories. The chapter discusses how bureaucratic transformation to lower levels of democratic quality – defined as administrative backsliding – is enacted, what the goals and strategies employed by backsliders with respect to the public administration are, and which reactions from the bureaucracy itself to autocratization can be expected. The chapter posits that comparative autocratization and public administration research would benefit from closer intellectual exchange about the phenomenon of administrative backsliding and recommends conceptual advancements as well as more systematic data collection on politics-administration relationships and on the civil service transformation during autocratization to do so successfully.