Erosion and Refiguration

Exploring Authoritarian Transformations Ethnographically

Abstract

How can contemporary authoritarian transformations be studied ethnographically? Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Poland, this article develops the analytical figure of the democracy–authoritarianism matrix and proposes an understanding of political transformation as a dynamic interplay between erosion and refiguration. Conceptually, the article engages with approaches from cultural and social anthropology that focus on transformation processes, and particularly Saskia Sassen’s “analytics of change”, which is here adapted into an ethnographic perspective. The article also addresses the methodological challenges of conducting ethnographic research in polarised fields where the very foundations of the political are contested. Refigurations of three “transhistorical components” – the border, the law, and the body politic – serve as an analytical lens through which the emergence of a soft-authoritarian mode of governance is traced. This analysis brings into focus contemporary shifts within the democracy–authoritarianism matrix that, even beyond the tenure of authoritarian populist governments, point to a deeper, structural transformation of liberal democracies.