Governing Global Challenges

Autocratization Dynamics aims to position UiB-CMI LawTransform as a global leader in law and politics research and education. Partnering with top institutions worldwide, the project will explore the effects of autocratization and develop innovative, student-driven courses. The goal is to educate students as critical knowledge producers and to leverage LawTransform's expertise in interdisciplinary and international collaboration.

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In this project led by Carlo Koos, they explore how, and under what conditions violence in civil wars affects women's empowerment in particular and gender relations more broadly at the subnational and individual level. Empirically, we will combine survey experiments, archival data, GIS, and qualitative field research in Colombia, DR Congo, and Sri Lanka. Our goal is to significantly advance knowledge at the intersection of peace and conflict research, gender studies, and development economics. Read more about the project here. 

This project led by Lise Rakner, is a collaboration between UiB's Department of Government and Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) in Uganda. It aims to build the intellectual and infrastructural capacity of MISR's interdisciplinary MPhil/PhD program and launch a research agenda on decolonizing epistemologies. The NORHED II project continues a long-term cooperation, focusing on transforming higher education and exploring the relationship between locality and universality.

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African countries are clamping down on democracy, adopting legal restrictions on key civil and political rights that form the basis of democratic rule, including freedoms of association, speech, and information; the ability to choose political leaders; rule of law with recourse to independent courts; and rights and freedoms related to reproduction and family life, gender equality, sexual orientation and gender identity. Domestically, the restrictions privilege some social groups at the expense of other groups, increasing social and economic inequalities and contributing to social unrest and outward migration. Internationally, the African democratic backlash challenges global actors who have pressured developing countries to politically liberalize in the post-Cold War period. Yet, we have insufficient understanding of why this democratic backlash is happening, what the implications are, and which responses are effective under different conditions.

The point of departure of the project is that the backlash is not uniform in terms of what elements of democracy is under pressure, where it is under pressure, how it is under pressure and when this pressure matters. We therefore adopt a disaggregated approach to democracy and a multi method approach.