path to electoral autocracy

The path to electoral autocracy is a dangerous one, even for the leader who paves it. By definition, it creates an executive authority that is too powerful to give up. As one Polish politician put it in the lead-up to the 2023 general election following eight years of gradual shift towards electoral autocracy, “this election is about whether we go to jail or they go to jail.”[1] As autocratisation unfolds and the electoral stakes increase, leaders will naturally use their executive ufabet