A model of bureaucratic capacities against democratic backsliding

Abstract The literature on democratic backsliding has paid relatively little attention to the role of the public administration in its potential to contain institutional dismantling. We introduce a theoretical model of the bureaucratic capacities that shape public agencies’ possibilities to resist political attacks by populist incumbents. The focus on organizational capacities fills a gap in bureaucratic contestation research, more commonly interested in the attitudes and policy preferences of individual public servants, or the legal strategies pursued by both parties. Our model grants particular attention to a set of autonomy-asserting incentives, in combination with agencies’ unique access to strategic governmental resources, to highlight their importance for bureaucratic contestation. In presenting the model, we contribute to the literature on administrative capacities and highlight existing contradictions that must be handled by specifying and limiting the institutional context where capacity is assessed.