Between Democracy and Authoritarianism: Insights from the Anthropology of Democracy

This article traces democracy from a time of universal optimism to today's moment of democratic decline to show how anthropology is particularly well positioned to understand the relationship between democracy and authoritarianism, not only as opposing forces, but also as interconnected political processes. Anthropological approaches to democracy rest on two key analytical distinctions: first, treating politics as a process and, second, separating democratic structures from democratic values to examine how people bridge the inevitable divide they encounter between democratic structures and values. The article highlights three bodies of literature—transitions to democracy, citizenship, and social movements—to show how the marketization and technicalization of politics, the centralization of power, and systems for the allocation of rights lay bare the ways that democratic structures can impede democratic values, as well as how people continue to pursue democratic values, even in the absence or decline of democratic structures.