Considerable scholarly literature contends that international and regional institutions help to support and foster the dominant regime type of its respective members and that organizations with high levels of 'democratic density' will boost democracy. However, linkages between these findings and the (1) content of accession rules to such organizations as well as (2) international legitimization sources for autocratic regime survival, have yet to be sufficiently explored. In this context, the accession of Equatorial Guinea to the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) in 2014 proves a useful case-study given how the official narrative emphasized membership would trigger a subsequent democratization process. Joining the CPLP was expected to produce two intertwined yet still unfulfilled effects: a deterrence effect on a possible slide-down of the regime towards an even more authoritarian path; and a spill-over effect through possible reforms and subsequent liberalization of the country's political system. We argue that failure to lock-in a democratizing path for Equatorial Guinea through the adhesion to an international organization has essentially derived from the CPLP's own incipient institutional limitations, the diverging/competing agendas of its member states, and the lack of sufficient formal incentives for any democratization drive to take hold.

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Equatorial-Guinea,CPLP

• Political Science - Social Sciences