City Research Online

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the dynamics of contention between the political opposition and the incumbent in two cases of democratic backsliding: Turkey under the AKP and Venezuela under Chavismo. The political opposition in the two cases pursued various strategies, including electoral campaigns, protests, and insider-outsider coalitions, yet have failed to achieve their intertwined purported goals of overturning increasing authoritarianism and gaining power. Building on recent theoretical and empirical work in comparative politics, International Relations and social movement studies, this thesis generates an analytical narrative that can reveal how the political opposition relates to the process of democratic backsliding in the aforementioned cases. By studying the dynamics of contention between the incumbent and the political opposition with a comparative historical study, this thesis outlines the mechanisms involved in the political opposition’s interaction with the incumbent in processes of democratic backsliding. In order to study this phenomenon, the thesis brings together the contentious politics framework and frame analysis, which I term “contentious frame analysis” and applies this approach to examine the dynamics of democratic backsliding. Through using this methodology, this thesis contends that three mechanisms are at play in the process of democratic backsliding in both cases. These mechanisms, termed ‘polarisation’, the use of a ‘fifth column frame’ and ‘securitisation’, show how both the political opposition and incumbent in both cases, contributed to the outcome of populist authoritarianism taking root in both societies. These mechanisms served to sustain contention in both cases, which has ultimately contributed to the incumbent consolidating political control, despite the efforts of the political opposition to challenge the incumbent. The findings of this research, therefore, challenge the presentation of the role of the political opposition as solely a necessary agent for democratisation in the comparative politics literature; extends the contentious politics framework to the study of the domestic, regional and international context’s influence on the development and challenging of political regimes; and, shows how the frames that are used by actors in these aforementioned processes are both contested and rooted within their historical contexts.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	J Political Science
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs > International Politics School of Policy & Global Affairs > School of Policy & Global Affairs Doctoral Theses Doctoral Theses

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