[3] The hybrid regime may hold a clean election if the ruling elites are confident in their popularity.
Usually, the return of some democratic institutions by an autocrat is done in order to increase the ruler's legitimacy, including international respect.
However, an underestimation of the risks (caused by broken feedback mechanisms) may result in unexpected outcomes.
[5] Paul Pierson noted that in developed democracies, candidates often change their rhetoric depending on the tactics and preferred audience of their opponents.
He also noted that voters changing their behavior in such a way as not to "waste" their vote on a popular, but impassable candidate, leads to unplanned heterogeneity in the election results, especially in conditions of pluralism.