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Paper short abstract

This paper revisits “soft authoritarianism” in political anthropology and asks what comes next. Focusing on migration and border policies in Poland, it argues that authoritarian shifts persist across electoral change and are actively pushed forward by a range of political and grassroots actors.

Paper long abstract

The concept of “soft authoritarianism” was introduced into political anthropology to analyse a mode of governance that combines illiberal, authoritarian, and democratic elements, drawing power precisely from this hybrid configuration. Rather than seizing power through coups, actors operating within this mode gain office through elections and subsequently mobilise democratic legitimacy to hollow out liberal-democratic institutions from within. Judicial independence, media pluralism, and electoral integrity are gradually undermined without an explicit break with the normative framework of democracy. This lens has proven productive for ethnographically tracing shifts along the democracy–authoritarianism matrix in Poland under right-wing populist governments (Adam/Steinhauer/Randeria 2022; Adam/Hess 2023).

This paper argues, however, that a primary focus on governmental practice and policy-making is increasingly insufficient. At least three developments challenge this perspective: the global normalisation of authoritarian rule, which diminishes the imperative to publicly enact democratic norms in international contexts; the increasing readiness of right-wing political actors to resort to violence as a mode of domination; and the growing importance of grassroots movements that actively demand authoritarian transformations from below.

Building on key contributions to anthropological transformation research (Verdery 1996; Hyatt 2011; Wright/Reinhold 2011) and long-term ethnographic work on struggles along the democracy–authoritarianism matrix, this paper asks what new political formations and rationalities are currently emerging. Focusing in particular on migration policy and border regimes, it shows how authoritarian shifts are pushed forward across electoral cycles, and why the replacement of right-populist administrations does not in itself undo authoritarian dynamics once they have become politically mobilised and socially demanded.