Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave

A powerful autocratic wave is sweeping the globe. Over the last 17 years, no country remains untouched.

Fostering a Fourth Democratic Wave builds on a growing body of research that finds that civil resistance movements-using tactics such as strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience, and a range of other nonviolent tactics-are one of the most powerful forces for democracy worldwide and therefore are central to countering the authoritarian threat.

It advances a three-part strategy to do so by:

1. Proposing new approaches and tools to support civil resistance movements.

2. Advancing a new international norm-the "Right to Assistance" to pro-democracy movements.

3. Outlining strategic and tactical options to constrain authoritarian regimes and drive up the cost of their repression.