Democratic political ethics has traditionally focused on the rights and duties of political agents – officeholders, candidates, voters, activists, and so on – in ideal or at least reasonably well-functioning democracies. The emergence of so-called electoral authoritarian regimes, as well as the growing number of democracies showing signs of regression or even a looming authoritarian turn, necessitate expanding the horizon of political ethics to include reflection on the normative situation of political actors of all kinds in such settings.

While the growing number of electoral authoritarian regimes and regressive democracies is much discussed in empirical political science research, this development is not yet reflected in systematic normative theorizing. These regimes raise novel and complex moral questions that are arguably distinct from, or relate in theoretically interesting ways to, both the established concerns of democratic theory and the traditional questions of resistance in full-fledged dictatorships. These novel challenges are not merely pressing questions for academic research but reflect the practical dilemmas of democracy-supporting activists, politicians, and citizens.

This workshop creates space for systematic studies in the political ethics of electoral authoritarian and regressive democratic regimes, while facilitating a dialog between academic and non-academic stakeholders on the moral dilemmas of resisting these regimes.