Gennadii Iakovlev analyzes the structural reasons that are associated with democratic backslides in their earlier and final phases. Namely, combining the data from various existing projects: Episodes of Regime Transformation, V-Dem, World Inequality Database, and ParlGov, he teases out, first, the factors that lead to the growth of polarization, second, under what structural conditions future autocrats attack their courts of justice, and finally, under what conditions autocratization episodes occur.