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Why do autocratic actors, practices and imaginaries become appealing, including within formally democratic societies? How are they resisted? Existing research frequently explains autocratisation through institutional erosion, elite strategies or declining democratic attitudes. While essential, these approaches insufficiently capture how autocratic appeal is produced through the interaction of affective attachments, political discourses and material conditions. Autocratic projects may gain support by responding to experiences of insecurity, dispossession, abandonment or loss of control, while promising belonging, protection, recognition and political efficacy. This panel invites theoretical, empirical and methodological contributions that examine autocratic appeal as a relational, contextual and conjunctural process rather than as an inherent property of particular ideologies, leaders or social groups. The panel also seeks to investigate how autocratic appeal is contested, weakened or redirected. Under what conditions do grievances become articulated through exclusionary projects, and when can they instead sustain democratic mobilisation? How do institutions, civil society and everyday practices generate democratic appeal and resistance? We welcome papers exploring how affective, discursive and material dynamics interact across everyday life, digital spaces, political institutions, social movements and transnational networks. Contributions may present diverse regional cases, methods and theoretical traditions, and focus on topic such as populism and the far-right; gender and racialised politics; youth and political socialisation; digital authoritarianism; institutional capture and resistance; the transnational circulation of authoritarian repertoires; and the role of emotions, collective identities and political narratives. The panel aims to develop a multidimensional understanding of autocratisation and identify possibilities for democratic renewal under conditions of uncertainty.