OSW

SIGNATURE WORK
CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 2022

Mass Communication Technologies and the Progressions of Democratic Backsliding in El Salvador

Name

Alberto Najarro Chavez

Major

Environmental Science, Public Policy

Class

2022

About

Alberto André Najarro is a native from El Salvador studying Environmental Science and Public Policy. Alberto has been interested in politics from a young age. That led him to co-found a political party in his country at age eighteen, and take advantage of his interdisciplinary education to conduct research on democratic backsliding for his signature work. Alberto will pursue a Master of Law in China Studies with a concentration in International Relations and Politics at Peking University in the People’s Republic of China, and will then attend the Harvard Kennedy School in the United States as a candidate for the Master in Public Policy.

Signature Work Project Overview

In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has continuously increased his efforts to dismantle democracy and set the country down a road of democratic backsliding. Bukele has induced democratic backsliding by expressing rejection of the democratic rules of the game, denying the legitimacy of political opponents, tolerating and encouraging violence, and showing readiness to curtail the civil liberties of opponents, including the media. Drawing on the Key Indicators of Authoritarian Behavior oered by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, this article traces the role that MCTs have played in his consolidation of power and the erosion of horizontal accountability by oering exhibits on how the indicators t into El Salvador’s democratic backsliding.

Signature Work Presentation Video