Thesis: 'The Democratic Bubble: Subnational Opposition Enclaves within Dominant-Party Electoral Autocracies'

In a non-democracy that holds competitive elections, can a locality elect opposition and democratise ahead of democratic transition at the national level? The thesis project probes this question and seeks to propose a process through which this phenomenon is possible. It posits that the condition of economic independence from the regime enables this process, but it also seeks to understand the extent to which the democratisers replicate the machine politics model of the incumbent regime in their effort to consolidate power.