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This research project focuses on the diffusion of democratic backsliding across national borders. The concept of diffusion refers to processes in comparative regime change research where each instance of a phenomenon (in this case, democratic backsliding) increases the likelihood of future occurrences. Thus, individual cases are not independent of one another; rather, a form of 'contagion' takes place. Empirical observations indicate that instances of democratic backsliding often occur in close temporal succession and within geographically connected countries, suggesting that they are not isolated events.