“This ambitious collection succeeds at marrying breadth and depth. In addition to offering countless insights on the structures, actors, history, geography, and consequences of autocratization, it sets a compelling agenda for future research. Anyone seeking to understand autocratization will benefit from reading this handbook.”Nancy Bermeo, Oxford University, UK“Authoritarianism, autocratization, backsliding: these concepts have defined a wide-ranging and fecund research agenda. This collection gathers thoughtful essays by a 'who’s who' in the study of autocratization. The volume is organized in a particularly useful way, considering questions of conceptualization, measurement, and the causes as well as effects of backsliding and authoritarian regress. An added benefit is a cluster of essays that review the phenomenon through a regional lens, capturing nuances we can miss taking a global approach. An important and well-timed collection that surveys the most pressing political problem of our time.”Stephan Haggard, University of California San Diego, USA