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December 20, 2023

♟️Authoritarianism and religion come around again

Nathan Brown

Conceptions of authoritarianism have broadened to include all nondemocratic rule. Unnoticeably in that process, the role of religion and religious institutions has declined. Political and religious authority interact and overlap. Nathan Brown argues that rediscovering how they do so will help us refine our understanding of autocracy

October 26, 2023

♟️ Why it matters how we talk about the 'global' autocratisation trend

Licia Cianetti

Licia Cianetti and Petra Alderman critique the trend for claiming that a 'global' autocratisation is sweeping the world. It is, they argue, not a homogenous process, but many processes that look differently across time and space. Just as we need to better differentiate autocracies, so we also need better language to reflect these differences in autocratisation

September 5, 2023

♟️ Authoritarianism and immigration policy: Tunisia shows it's not that straightforward

Katharina Natter

Throughout 2023 Tunisia's immigration policies have made headlines, with authoritarian President Saied’s xenophobic speech, a new EU-Tunisia migration deal, and repeated protests condemning violence against Black migrants. But authoritarianism doesn’t inevitably result in increased migrant rights violations. Nor, however, does democratisation guarantee improved rights, as Katharina Natter shows

June 9, 2023

♟️ Authoritarianism and disinformation: the dangerous link

Nikolina Klatt

Where there is authoritarianism, there is disinformation. Nikolina Klatt and Vanessa Boese-Schlosser examine the use of disinformation in authoritarian governance and highlight how autocrats use it to maintain their grip on power. But they also caution that disinformation is not exclusive to autocratic governance: spreading deceitful narratives harms democracies Autocratic disinformation tactics Limiting transparency is […]

May 9, 2023

♟️ Autocratic blame games

Scott Williamson

When citizens develop grievances, autocrats try to deflect blame to retain popular support. Scott Williamson argues that regime type influences strategies and success rates of autocrats shifting blame when confronted by popular discontent. The more personalist an autocracy, the more damaging blame attribution can be for autocratic survival in office

April 24, 2023

♟️ How ruling parties’ relationship with citizens changes the nature of autocracy

Fabio Angiolillo

Party-based regimes are the most durable autocracies. Although there exist stronger and weaker ruling parties depending on the elite-leader relationship, the attitude of party-based regimes towards citizens also matters to their nature. Fabio Angiolillo argues that ruling parties’ recruitment strategies in autocracies can facilitate a much deeper understanding of party-based autocracies

March 22, 2023

♟️ The resistance playbook: disrupting autocratisation

Luca Tomini

Resistance to autocratisation is not limited to democracies. In fact, Luca Tomini, Suzan Gibril, and Venelin Bochev demonstrate that the main actors resisting autocratisation and their strategies vary across regime types. Analysing resistance strategies from democracy to fully authoritarian regimes can be invaluable beyond academia to practitioners and activists

February 21, 2023

♟️ Brazil’s 8 January insurrection: distinguishing coup advocacy from coup attempt

Jonathan Powell

Observers were quick to call the events on 8 January in Brazil a coup attempt. But Jonathan Powell and Salah Ben Hammou caution against conflating coup advocacy with coup attempts. Authoritarianism scholars should also note that usage of the term 'coup' has historically varied

January 6, 2023

♟️ Authoritarian practices with adjectives in China

Abbey Heffer

Authoritarian regimes are not centralised monoliths. In China, authoritarian responses to protest can differ dramatically across localities. Abbey Heffer argues that research on regime-level authoritarianism often overlooks decentralisation. Studying aspects of authoritarianism, such as protest repression and concessions, requires a practice-based approach that reconciles national and localised authoritarianism

December 23, 2022

♟️ Let’s not overlook classic authoritarians! Understanding Thailand's political regime

Thareeat Laohabut

The fashion for seeing all authoritarian regimes through the lens of ‘democratic backsliding’ or ‘autocratisation’ has overshadowed our understanding of the strategies of classic authoritarians. Thareerat Laohabut uses the case of Thailand to illustrate this problem, showing how civil-millitary relations supporting the regime have been inadequately understood

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