There is a widespread perception that we are witnessing a period of democratic decline, manifesting itself in varieties of democratic backsliding such as the manipulation of elections, marginalization and repression of regime opponents and minorities, or more incremental executive aggrandizement. Yet others are more optimistic and have argued that democracy is in fact resilient, or that we are observing coinciding trends of democratic decline but also expansion. This forum highlights key issues in the debate on democracy's decline, which center on conceptual and measurement issues, agreement on the phenomenon but not its nature or severity, the importance of international factors, the emphasis we should put on political elites versus citizens, and the consequences of backsliding for global politics. Staffan I. Lindberg provides an empirical perspective on the scope and severity of democracy's decline, and argues that polarization and misinformation are important drivers for this current wave of autocratization. Susan D. Hyde highlights the detrimental consequences of reduced support for democracy by the international community, which has affected civil society organizations—important arbiters of democracy—especially severely. Challenging some of these conclusions, Irfan Nooruddin claims that any gains for democracy after the end of the Cold War were short-lived, failing to sustain democracy because of an overemphasis on elections and a disregard for structural factors. Finally, Larry M. Bartels argues that we need to look to political elites and not citizens if we want to protect democracy in the United States and elsewhere, which has important implications for how we study democracy and its challenges.

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论坛：民主面临的全球挑战？对民主倒退的看法

人们普遍认为，我们正在目睹一个民主衰落时期，表现为各种民主倒退，例如操纵选举、边缘化和镇压政权反对者和少数民族，或更渐进的行政强化。然而，其他人则更为乐观，他们认为民主实际上是有弹性的，或者我们正在观察到民主衰落和扩张的同时出现的趋势。这个论坛突出了关于民主衰落的辩论中的关键问题，这些辩论集中在概念和衡量问题、对现象而非其性质或严重性的共识、国际因素的重要性、我们应该把重点放在政治精英与公民之间，以及全球政治倒退的后果。斯塔凡一世 林德伯格对民主衰落的范围和严重程度提供了实证视角，并认为两极分化和错误信息是当前这一波专制化浪潮的重要驱动力。苏珊·D·海德 (Susan D. Hyde) 强调了国际社会减少对民主的支持所带来的不利后果，这对民间社会组织——民主的重要仲裁者——造成了特别严重的影响。Irfan Nooruddin 质疑其中一些结论，声称冷战结束后民主的任何成果都是短暂的，由于过分强调选举和忽视结构性因素而未能维持民主。最后，拉里·巴特尔斯 (Larry M. Bartels) 认为，如果我们想保护美国和其他地方的民主，我们需要关注政治精英而不是公民，