This grant supported ongoing research on the deterioration of democracy around the globe. A large component of this project focuses on the variation in the level of media freedom among democratic countries, and how changes in media freedom affect other institutions and accountability actors within democracy. In addition, the project also examines the effect of ideology – namely, populism – and institutions – specifically, large government majorities – on democratic decline. Thus, this research contributes to an expanding area of research within comparative politics that focuses on “democratic backsliding.”

This grant supplemented funding from a JSPS Grant-In-Aid For Scientific Research C, thereby allowing me to hire an additional research assistant and cover increased travel expenses related to a symposium on “Democracy in Latin America.”  This symposium, held at Waseda University on November 29, 2019, brought together leading scholars and researchers from Latin America, the USA and Japan.  Democratic backsliding has been most dramatic in Latin America, and the symposium presentations emphasized a range of contributing factors including populism, executive power, legislative politics, clientelism, vote-buying, and electoral fraud. 

Through the symposium presentations, eventual publication of this research, and the development of related projects for future research, I aim to improve scholarly and societal understanding of democratic accountability worldwide.