Trojan horses in liberal international organizations? How democratic backsliders undermine the UNHRC

Anna M. Meyerrose () and Irfan Nooruddin ()
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Anna M. Meyerrose: Arizona State University
Irfan Nooruddin: Georgetown University

The Review of International Organizations, 2025, vol. 20, issue 1, No 5, 125-156

Abstract: Abstract Liberal democracy is facing renewed challenges from a growing group of states undergoing democratic backsliding. While entrenched autocrats have long resented and contested the established liberal order, we know far less about how newer backsliding states behave on the international stage. We argue these states, who joined prominent western liberal institutions prior to their backsliding, will use their established membership in these organizations both to protect themselves from future scrutiny regarding adherence to liberal democratic values and to oppose the prevailing western liberal norms that increasingly conflict with their evolving interests. Using voting data from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) from 2006-2021, we show that backsliding states are more likely to vote against targeted resolutions that name and shame specific countries. We supplement this analysis with detailed data from the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and combine regression analysis and a structural topic model (STM) to show that backsliding states are more critical in their UPR reports when evaluating advanced western democracies, and more likely to emphasize issues that align with their own interests while de-emphasizing ones that might threaten government power and control over citizens.

Keywords: United Nations; Illiberalism; Democratic backsliding; International organizations; Liberal international order; Human rights; UNHRC; UPR; F5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s11558-023-09511-6

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