Authoritarian Politics

3 units

This class gives an overview of the politics of authoritarian regimes. We begin with concepts, defining authoritarian regimes and learn what distinguishes them from democracies. We also look at different kinds of autocratic regimes such as “personalistic regimes,” military dictatorships, or one-party regimes. Operating from the vantage point that dictators wish to remain in power, we scrutinize two different kinds of threats to authoritarian survival: elite-led coup d’états and popular revolutions/protests. Subsequently, we study how dictators can counter these threats, looking at institutions (power-sharing institutions such as legislatures and information-related institutions such as elections), repression, cooptation, and information manipulation (propaganda and censorship). We conclude with a discussion of the phenomenon of democratic backsliding and the prospects for an authoritarian turn in America.