12. Authoritarian regimes Flashcards
wrong assumption about autocracy
and what it really is
- dictator has all the power
- you need other people to help you
- can’t rule a big country by yourself
- no dictator can rule alone
- transition can happen when support decreases
for democracies it is that citizens have all the power
first wave/generation of research on authoritarianism
- the totalitarianism paradigm until the mid 1960s
- highlighted the role of ideology and terror in authoritarian regime
- the creation of a new society and a “new man”
- implemented by using terror, propaganda, and a strong power
- totalitarian movements have been compared to political religion
arendt
second wave/generation of authoritarianism research
- rise of authortarianism from mids 1960s until 1980s (second reverse wave)
- national unity as a driving force for authoritarianism
- socio-economic factors driving both the emergence and stabilisation of these regimes
- more informal institutions like clientelism and patrongage and corruption
- attention to regional diversity
national unity: tension too much for democratic regime, establish national boundaries and identity
diversity: military regimes latam and sea, africa one party regimes, africa and me neo-patrimonial (regimes based on paying off elites/citizens) regimes
third wave/generation of authoritarianism research
- institutionalist approaches to authoritarianism from 1990s/2000s
- stabilising effect of institutions
- countries forced to democratise, authoritarian leaders use democratic institutions and manipulate them –> elections, rigging, stabilising autocracy
- other institutions with this effect could be judiciary, parliament, political party
- in parliament and political party discussion, identify problems to fix and people that are threats and remove them –> why single party dictatorships are so effective
- strategic behaviour of incumbents (and opposition)
ways of classifying autocratic regimes
questions, 2 out of 3 ways
who rules?: identity of elites supporting autocrat
- monarchies
- military regimes
- party regimes (single and multi)
- personalist regimes: regime organised around one person, cult around how amazing this person is
- mixes
how stable is rule?: degree of competition of power in the regime:
- closed autocracies: no elections
- hegemonic autocracies: elections but dictator strong in power, uneven playing field, opposition can’t really win
- competitive autocracies: elections and opposition could maybe win
problem with last classification:
1. you don’t know what goes on inside regime, you also need to understand elites supporting dictator
2. you define regime type by outcome of election. you can’t predict stability with this, you observe it.
- personalist regimes tend to collapse when dictator is removed because entire system was built around them
- mixes example russia party and personalist, north korea party/personalist/military
- hegemonic examples russia kazakhstan
- competitve example turkey
ways of classifying autocracies
last way
how do leaders obtain power?
1. hereditary succession, or lineage (monarchy)
2. the actual or threatened use of military (military regime)
3. popular election: (election)
- no-party regime
- one-party regime
- limited multiparty regime: dominant-party regime (hegemonic) and competitive party regime (competitive)
- with this classification you would classify north korea as a monarchy
regime type trends
- big increase in single party socialist regimes during cold war
- increase in personalist over the years: because elections have become important it is nice to have a personalist following cult even if you are rigging elections to stay in power
- monarchy remains stable over time: middle eastern regimes that are really stable
- also bump in military regimes and great decline: few tangible pure left because claiming power and not holding elections not legitimate so they are not common
military influence in party regimes more popular
can autocratic rule be based entirely on oppression?
- it’s hard because you can’t control all of your people all of the time
- oppression is only one way to maintain power
what do you need besides oppression to stay in power
- support from at least a group of elites/citizens
- support can be fabricated through manipulation or be genuine
- genuine support by providing public services and security
- fabricating support by instilling fear, paying people, rig public opinion polls, media fabrication, election fraud
all in all balancing act to the right amount of oppression and keeping citizens happy
three mechanisms to explain authoritarian stability
gerschewski
legitimitation
- performance (doing what a government should do) and ideational (convincing people in the system that this regime is the best, projecting image of this is a great country) legitimacy
repression
- high (killing, jailing) and low (less visible, more targeted, monitor people, disappearance) intensity repression
co-optation: getting elites/people on board
- formal (giving elites cabinet positions, head of ministry, involved in war) and informal (clientelism)
- performance can be provide public services, security, provide jobs
- high repression escalates, lessen support, more visible
- low repression examples china and russia
- mix of high repression with low performance legitimacy
- mix of low repression with high performance legitimacy
four mechanisms of control
- elite
- citizens
- institutions
- economy
mechanisms of control elites
- in any political system elites are in and out
- elites that are in have to stay loyal to you: if you lose power they lose their benefits, give them good positions (paying off, dependency, control/surveillance)
- elites that are out can’t become opposition: make their life so miserable they have to leave the country, if they get into parliament please them a little (gifts, deals) (keep them weak, create dependency, discouragement through shows of strength, targeted oppression)
mechanisms of control citizens
generate genuine support
- among key constituencies (marginal seats, powerful groups)
- paying off (public services, development)
- deceive/fake achievements: capture media
- socialisation to generate ideational legitimacy
targeted oppression
- among key opponents (opposition areas, vocal/miltant groups)
fabricate support
- rig elections and opinion polls to make support seem large
mechanisms of control institutions
- capture sources of information
- concentrate power through presidentialism, undermining checks and balances, tweaking electoral rules and rig elections to gain super majority in parliament
- disperse power in separate security services that check each other, gain control of the army
- have institutions that support managing elite dissent and co-optation like legislatures and ruling political parties as ways to manage difference of opinion
last one: need critique for some kind of legitimacy and you need to fix performance, but not too much critique
mechanisms of control economy
- concentrate economic activity in the state by capturing natural resources, strong involvement in state economy, and ensure dependency of companies and elites on state
- ensure dependence of citizens on state: keeping people poor or happy depends on if you’re authoritarian capitalism or exploitative authoritarianism
- ensure sufficient resources for state to be able to buy support
