Democratic backsliding as a threat of a return to authoritarianism

The article considers the problems of threats to the collapse of democracy, when the components of democracy are at risk. Examples of the collapse of democracy have shown the lack of free and fair elections, which threatens the independence of the judiciary, the restriction of the right to freedom of speech, and the political opposition’s ability to challenge the government, prosecute and offer alternatives to the regime. The government poses a threat to national security in order to create a „sense of crisis” that allows the government to „denigrate critics as pro-government or unpatriotic” and portray defenders of democratic institutions as „representatives of a tired, isolated elite”. With this in mind, the purpose of the study was determined – to systematize the factors of the collapse of democracy. In order to achieve this goal, the criteria of approaches to the analysis of the problems of coagulation of democracy were analyzed and systematized. As a result, the factors of the collapse of democracy include: the weakening of political institutions, violations of individual rights and freedom of thought, which call into question the efficiency and stability of democratic systems. It is established that the problematic aspects are the level of inequality, differences in identity; democratization through bottom-up peaceful protests has led to a higher level of democracy and democratic stability than democratization caused by elites; constitutions resulting from pluralism (reflecting different segments of society) are more likely to promote liberal democracy (at least in the short term); that the threat of civil conflict encourages regimes to make democratic concessions; development in a democratic direction requires collective security; the process of democratization can occur by chance, as it depends on unique characteristics and circumstances; correlation of democratization with democratization of knowledge as the spread of the ability to create and legitimize knowledge among citizens, in contrast to knowledge under the control of elite groups; correlation with the effect of democratization of design. Key words : democracy, democratic backsliding, political regime, democratization, political crisis.