Research Project
Authoritarian Transnational Narratives and Norm Promotion: Analysing Narrative Diffusion in the Emergence of the Foreign Agent Laws
This project explores whether, and in what ways, authoritarian narratives used to legitimize restrictive measures—such as the so-called Foreign Agent Laws—are shared across regimes and societies. It hypothesizes that such narratives do not emerge in isolation but are a product of processes of diffusion and reciprocal learning among authoritarian actors. These underlying processes create a pool of adaptable discursive strategies.
The study conducts a comparative most-similar case analysis focusing on actors that have passed or attempted to pass ‘Foreign Agent’ legislation, candidates being Georgia, Serbia, and Kyrgyzstan. Using content analysis of media discourses, the project maps and compares narrative structures to grasp their transnational and -regional diffusion by identifying structural similarities.
By conceptualising narratives as tools for both legitimation and consolidation, the study offers a novel analytical model for understanding the proliferation of authoritarian practices. It contributes to broader debates in democracy studies by illuminating the mechanisms through which authoritarian regimes resist liberal norms and reinforce one another ideologically.
Curriculum Vitae
Maximilian Hartl has been working as research associate at the Department of politics at IOS Regensburg since June 2025. In his doctoral project ‘Authoritarian Transnational Narratives and Norm Promotion: Analysing Narrative Diffusion in the Emergence of the Foreign Agent Laws’ he deals with the emergence and transregional spread of illiberal practices directed against civil society. He previously earned an M.A. in Democracy Studies at the University of Regensburg, where he researched Russia's imperial legitimation strategies in its war of aggression against Ukraine. He collected international experience in the South Caucasus and was part of the editorial team of the Länderanalysen, assisting the publication of the journals Russian- and Ukrainian Analytical Digest.
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