This book revitalizes the discourse on backsliding democracy and the global rise of autocracy, extending the consequences of their changes to a sustainable future. In three sections, the book systematically examines diverse pathways leading autocracies to rise and spread worldwide and debates the future consequences.Using a multidisciplinary approach, the book conceptualizes the rise of autocracy and the backsliding of democracy by studying dictatorship, authoritarianization processes, autocracy’s diffusion, and populism.It reveals the global spread of autocracy and reflects on the challenges this poses to, and the likely impacts on, a sustainable future. This book is of key interest to scholars and students of autocracy/autocratization, democracy and democratization, political sociology, sustainability, and more broadly to international relations and comparative politics.