Varieties of Authoritarian Regimes Flashcards
According to Gandhi (minimalistic typology)
How do we classify democracies?
In terms of political systems
- Parliamentary: The citizens will not directly vote for their chief executive, the prime minister is chosen by the political party and the parliament
- Presidential: The citizens of the country vote for the president.
- Constitutional monarchy: Hereditary head of state. Difference between the head of state and head of government.
According to Gandhi (minimalistic typology)
How are authoritarian regimes classified?
Authoritarian regimes are usually classified based on the characteristics of their support coalitions:
- Monarchies
- Military dictatorships
- Civilian regimes
We differentiate by looking at who is the head of the state and who their support coalitions are.
According to Gandhi (minimalistic typology)
How do we identify a monarchy?
And who is the support coalition?
Can be identified by looking at the title and hereditary position.
The support coalition:
1) Family: The ability to rely on family is important to maintain power.
2) Kin members
According to Gandhi (minimalistic typology)
How do we identify military dictatorships?
And who is the support coalition?
The military, either led by a single commander or a group of high-ranking officers, has direct control over the government.
The support coalition is the armed forces.
According to Gandhi (minimalistic typology)
How do we identify civilian dictatorships?
And who is the support coalition?
If you are neither a monarchy or military dictatorship, you must be a civilian regime even though you may have some elements in common with the two other.
Support coalition:
1. The political party in Dominant-party dictatorships (e.g. Soviet Union)
2. Personality cults in Personalistic dictatorships (e.g. North Korea)
According to Gandhi (minimalistic typology)
What are two types of civilian dictatorships?
- Dominant-party
- Personalistic dictatorships
These may shift over time. A country can go from a dominant-party regime to a personalistic dictatorship.
According to Svolik (looks at institutions)
Which two key features does a dictatorship have (or lack)?
Think about in terms of solving conflict
1) Lack an independent authority with the power to enforce agreements among key political actors.
2) Violence is the ultimate arbiter of conflicts in authoritarian politics
- This is the only way to settle a conflict.
According to Svolik (looks at institutions)
Authoritarian regimes can be classified based on which dimensions?
It is better to look at the different dimensions, after conceptualizing dictatorship.
Authoritarian regimes can be classified based on conceptual dimensions of authoritarian politics:
1. Military involvement
2. Restrictions on political parties
3. Legislative selection
4. Executive selection
According to Svolik (looks at institutions)
How we can classify the authoritarian regime based on the dimension of military involvement (none, indirect, corporate and personal) in politics
The four conceptual dimensions of authoritarian politics
- None = a civilian type of regime
- Indirect = the military has removed by force the ruler from the power, but you assign a civilian as a figure head. Still the military makes the decisions.
- Corporate = direct involvement of the military. Quite spread, the decisions come from the military in different areas.
- Personal = Direct involvement of the military. They still allow civilians to run some parts of institutions.
According to Svolik (looks at institutions)
How we can classify the authoritarian regime based on the dimension of restrictions on political parties
And what does Svolik say specifically about this dimension?
- Parties banned
- Single party
- Multiple parties
In Svolik´s view, this dimension crosses through the different typologies of dictatorships. Whether they allow parties or not is the relevant point, not whether it is a monarchy or a civilian dictatorship.
According to Svolik (looks at institutions)
How we can classify the authoritarian regime based on the dimension of legislative selection
If there is any representation at all.
- None
- Unelected or appointed legislature
- One party
- Largest party controls more than 75% of seats
- Largest party controls less than 75% of seats
- Nonpartisan legislature
According to Svolik (looks at institutions)
How we can classify the regime based on the dimension of executive selection
- Unelected
- One party or candidate
- Selected by a small, unelected body (e.g. Soviet Union)
- Elected by more than 75% of the vote
- Elected by less than 75% of the vote
How do Gandhi and Svolik differ in their typologies of authoritarian regimes? Do they criticise each other’s views?
Elaborate.
Gandhi’s view is very minimalistic and primarily looks at who is the head of state. Gandhi distinguishes between three types of dictators; monarchs, military rulers and civilian dictators
Distinction of these types is possible through clear observable criteria.
Svolik tries to define dictatorship a bit further than what Gandhi does. Looks more at the institutions and different dimensions, which is important. Which dimension you choose depends on what you want to address.
Svolik is sceptical towards classifying dictatorships into ideal types such as personalist, military and single-party dictatorships. He urges us to look at the different dimensions that we want to measure and then develop appropriate typologies for each one.
He uses three levels of observation: the country, the ruling-coalition level and the leader level.
How should we classify Russia?
What can you say about the Russian political system?
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has regularly held presidential and legislative elections.
The rules are followed, but
* There are widespread concerns about the lack of free and fair nature of elections.
* International observers have often not been allowed to move and observe elections freely.
* Russia combines electoral competition with some degree of authoritarianism.
Today, Russia is not moving towards democracy.
What are some types of hybrid regimes?
Name 4
- Partially democratic regime
- Tutelary regimes (where elected governments are constrained by non-elected institutions, e.g., the military in Pakistan
- Semi-competitive democracies where elections are free but a major party is banned.
- Competitive authoritarianism (a type of hybrid, semi-democratic, subset of civilian dictatorship)
