Christopher Wingens defends and publishes dissertation at the University of Bonn

In his dissertation, Christopher Wingens, researcher at IDOS, examines the preventive effect of international factors on autocratisation. 

With the defence of his dissertation on 19 November 2024 and its publication on 7 February 2025, Christopher Wingens successfully completed his doctorate at the University of Bonn on the topic ‘The international dimension of autocratisation and its prevention’. The thesis was supervised by Prof. Wolfram Hilz (University of Bonn) and PD Dr habil Julia Leininger (IDOS). 

The results of his work show that both cooperative democracy protection measures such as democracy promotion and democratic arms sanctions can contribute to preventing autocratisation. However, the use and effect of measures based on involuntariness in particular are subject to high thresholds. A coordinated approach by donors and a mobilised civil society and political opposition are important. When readjusting funding strategies, protection measures should therefore be designed to be context-sensitive. Wingens used an innovative mixed-method design for this purpose, combining a quantitative cross-country macro-analysis with two qualitative case studies on autocratisation processes in Senegal and Indonesia. 

During his defence, Wingens discussed four theses, two of which were based on the results of the dissertation and two of which went beyond the scope of the dissertation. The external promotion of democracy by the EU against the background of geopolitical upheaval and the role of political institutions in the modelling and analysis of climate and sustainability scenarios were discussed in the outlying theses, building on Wingens’ research at IDOS. PD Dr. habil. Julia Leininger and PD Dr. habil. Julian Bergmann, two IDOS colleagues, were part of the examination board.