Thinking Democratically: A Comprehensive Approach to Countering and Preventing Shrinking Space

TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables and Figures 4
Executive Summary 5
1 Introduction 8
2 Strategies for closing democratic space 11
2.1 Closing Civic Space 13
2.2 Creating an uneven playing field 20
2.3 Rule of law, separation of powers and impunity 26
3 Main Actors 31
3.1 Political parties’ contested role 31
3.2 Citizen and civil society pushback 34
3.3 Other non-state actors: business, violent gangs and organised crime 37
3.4 Russia, China and regional authoritarian influence 37
3.5 International donors 39
4 Conclusion 40
5 Recommendations 48
6 Annexes: summaries of country case studies 52
6.1 Kenya 52
6.2 El Salvador 53
6.3 Indonesia 54
6.4 Georgia 55
6.5 Honduras 56
6.6 Guatemala 56
6.7 Zimbabwe 57
6.8 Europe 58
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