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The October 2025 issue of Democratization presents a special issue on Democracy Promotion in Times of Autocratization, edited by Sonja Grimm, Brigitte Weiffen and Karina Mross. The conceptual introduction by the editors and eight research articles explore the ways in which the global trend of autocratization affects democracy promotion efforts – through autocratization in traditional target countries of democracy promotion, and through the rise of autocratic competitors. 

An overview can be found here:
The full list of articles (many of them available open access) and direct links are below.

Sonja Grimm, Brigitte Weiffen and Karina Mross: 
Democracy Promotion in Times of Autocratization: A Conceptual Note 
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Julia Leininger, Karina Mross and Jonas Wolff: 
Strategic responses to autocratization in international democracy promotion 

 
Sungmin Cho: 
China’s active defence against democracy promotion: a conceptual analysis 

 
Murat Coskun and Elena Dueck: 
Downward Spirals in EU Democracy Promotion: How Contestations and Shrinking Spaces for Civil Society Organisation limit the EU’s Influence in Turkey 
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Giselle Bosse: 
Policy-learning in EU democracy support: strategic adaptation and (un)learning in the EU’s response to authoritarian consolidation in Belarus 

 
Louise Ohlig: 
German political foundations’ democracy promotion in autocratizing Tanzania: opening spaces for civil society support and transnational learning 

 
Giuliano Guidi Braga and Laura Ferreira-Pereira: 
The European Parliament’s democracy promotion activities in the face of autocratization in South America: the cases of Bolivia and Venezuela 

 
Karina Shyrokykh and Thomas Winzen: 
International actors and democracy protection: preventing the spread of illiberal legislation in Eastern Europe and Central Asia 

 
Stefano Palestini, Luciano Quispe and Diego Telias: 
Autocracy promotion in the Americas? Scrutinizing the effect of China and Russia on democracy protection in Venezuela and Nicaragua