In times of rising populism and illiberalism across the globe and a worrying deterioration of the democratic performance of some of the world’s leading countries, democratic backsliding has emerged as a new buzzword in comparative democracy studies. This panel strives to unpack the concept of backsliding both in theoretical and in empirical terms. Its contributions cover issues related to the appropriate definition and measurement of democratic backsliding, discuss the role of international democracy promotion in favouring or constraining its onset, and assess empirical expressions of democratic backsliding in the Visegrad region, the Western Balkans, and Turkey. By bringing together regional expertise and thorough theoretical reflections on the topic, the panel seeks to advance the debate on democratic backsliding both conceptually and empirically, and to set out a research agenda for the field.