Countering Illiberalism & Building Democratic Resilience

Your practical journey into understanding and responding to illiberal threats

Welcome to your learning gateway into one of the most urgent challenges of our time: the rise of illiberalism and democratic backsliding. This course is part of and builds on the findings of the Horizon Europe project AUTHLIB. It focuses on contemporary neo-authoritarian and illiberal challenges to liberal democracy in Europe and on the range of liberal-democratic responses to them.

The course introduces students to the idea that illiberalism is not a single ideology but a set of diverse and evolving projects operating through narratives, emotions, policies, institutional strategies, and transnational networks. Drawing on comparative research from across the European Union, students examine how illiberal actors mobilize support among different social groups and how these dynamics reshape political competition, governance, and democratic norms.

The course combines theoretical approaches with empirical insights from survey research, textual and social media analysis, and deliberative experiments, and places a strong emphasis on policy-relevant responses aimed at strengthening democratic resilience.

Through this lens, students learn to critically assess both the appeal of illiberal politics and the conditions under which liberal democracy can be defended, adapted, and renewed.

Why this course matters

Illiberalism doesn’t arrive in one dramatic moment. It grows through narratives, emotions, institutional erosion, and policy shifts that often remain unnoticed until they reshape a political system.

To counter it, we need more than legal knowledge or political theory. We need:

• Diagnostic thinking: the ability to recognize what kind of illiberal threat we are facing.
• Matched strategies: institutional, cultural, civic, and international tools that respond to the right vulnerabilities.
• Practical understanding of tactics: how illiberal actors use fear, nostalgia, identity, and crisis narratives to gain power.
• Examples of what works and what fails from across Europe and the world.

This course gives you these tools in a structured, accessible, and applied format.

What you will learn

Throughout the modules, you will explore:

• The core concepts: liberalism, illiberalism, hybrid regimes, emotional drivers, and systemic vulnerabilities.
• How illiberal movements operate at the levels of institutions, narratives, laws, and public emotions.
• Four families of counter-strategies:
  • Institutional & Legal
  • Cultural & Narrative
  • Civic & Participatory
  • International & Cross-Border
• The unique value of participatory methods for countering illeberalism and building social resilience against authoritarianism.

By the end, you will be able to assess democratic vulnerabilities, design context-appropriate responses, and apply tested strategies in your own work.