Building a "Democratic Playbook"

Building a “Democratic Playbook”
Thursday, November 20, 2025 | 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET | Hybrid Event | Perry World House

Perry World House is pleased to host a special conversation on democratic resilience with Penn Global’s Middle East Distinguished Visiting Professor Dahlia Scheindlin and Perry World House Distinguished Visiting Fellows Zack Beauchamp and Carolina Jiménez Sandoval.

After decades of democratic backsliding in dozens of countries around the world, scholars, journalists, and activists are familiar with the “authoritarian playbook”: from Hungary to Brazil to Israel to Senegal, aspiring authoritarians use similar tactics to try to transform democracies to autocracies.

At the same time, there is far less understanding of what a “democratic playbook” looks like. How do resilient democracies, including societies in war or conflict, push back against authoritarian and populist movements? What institutional, social, and normative practices have been able to slow or even block democratic backsliding? What tactics and strategies on the part of opposition parties, civil society have been effective? How do societies persevere when democratic rights are taken away? Please join us for this important and timely conversation.