About this Research Topic
People in all geographic regions of the world are losing political, civil, and cultural liberties. Democratization is declining and authoritarian governance is rising. This trend is occurring on a global scale, from the political turmoil in Peru, spurred by former President Pedro Castillo Terrones' attempt to illegally impose a one-man rule, to China's increasingly repressive control over "autonomous" regions of Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and Hong Kong, to Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. In the United States, democratic backsliding is seen through heightened extremism, polarization, media distrust, and election security vulnerabilities. Digital technologies enable anyone to amplify these vulnerabilities through strategic narratives, propaganda, disinformation, and deception. Given the current global political climate, the threats to democratic principles merit systematic investigation.
What are the psychological causes and consequences of democratic decline and rising authoritarianism? How do these differ cross-culturally? What, if anything, should be done to address this global trend? For this research topic, we invite contributions that apply social and political psychological research and theory to address these broad questions. Successful submissions may include any methodological approach but should be empirically driven and primarily grounded in social or political psychological theory. Systematic reviews and novel theoretical papers may also be considered. Authors are strongly encouraged to contribute inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives.
We are interested in a broad range of manuscript themes that consider the social/political psychology of democratization, threats to sovereignty and autonomy (at individual, family, community, or national levels), and ways to counter them. Authors may choose to deep dive into specific causes and/or consequences of declining democracy, such as (dis)trust in elections, media, and political leadership; influence in the modern information environment; authoritarian and extremist ideology and behavior; and political polarization.
What are the psychological causes and consequences of democratic decline and rising authoritarianism? How do these differ cross-culturally? What, if anything, should be done to address this global trend? For this research topic, we invite contributions that apply social and political psychological research and theory to address these broad questions. Successful submissions may include any methodological approach but should be empirically driven and primarily grounded in social or political psychological theory. Systematic reviews and novel theoretical papers may also be considered. Authors are strongly encouraged to contribute inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives.
We are interested in a broad range of manuscript themes that consider the social/political psychology of democratization, threats to sovereignty and autonomy (at individual, family, community, or national levels), and ways to counter them. Authors may choose to deep dive into specific causes and/or consequences of declining democracy, such as (dis)trust in elections, media, and political leadership; influence in the modern information environment; authoritarian and extremist ideology and behavior; and political polarization.
Keywords: democracy, sovereignty, autonomy, security, conflict, authoritarianism, extremism, polarization, digital freedom, election security, information (dis)trust
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
