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 Read more
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 Read more
Hager Ali
The war in Sudan has passed the five-month mark, and peace efforts seem to have plateaued. Breaking down Sudan’s political system and transition since 2019, Hager Ali explains how defective interim governance enabled the violent power struggle between the country’s largest armed forces. She argues that past political systems could still undermine present peace efforts […] Read more
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 Read more
Andrea Cassani
Following years of uncertainty, Senegal’s President Macky Sall has announced he will not run for a third term in 2024. Andrea Cassani, Tiziana Corda, and Giovanni Carbone consider Sall's decision less unexpected than it would have been some years ago. They discuss how term-limit politics could influence democracy and development across Africa Read more
Anca Turcu
Populists thrive on being perceived as outsiders. This creates an incentive for mainstream governing populist parties to portray themselves as challengers to the establishment. Anca Turcu examines the tactics Hungary’s and Turkey’s governing populists employ to survive mainstreaming Read more
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 […] Read more
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 Read more
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