POLS 202-Ch. 6 Nondemocratic Regimes

All terms for Ch. 6 of POLS 202

Authoritarianism

A political system in which a small group of individuals exercises power over the state without being constitutionally responsible to the public

Nondemocratic Regimes

A political Regime that is controlled by a small group of individuals who exercise power over the state without being constitutionally responsible to the public.

• Pub. Plays no significant role is selecting or removing leaders from office 

• Leaders have much greater leeway to develop policies that they "dictate" to the people. 

• Built around the restriction of indi. Freedom. 

• Rela. To equality is less clear. 

• Can have a strong institutional underpinning of ideology. Not all regimes are ideological 

• They may be institutionalized and legitimate 

• Sometimes the leader is the regime 

Totalitarianism

A nondemocratic regime that is highly centralized, possessing some form of strong ideology that seeks to transform and absorb fundamental aspects of state, society, and the economy, using a wide array of institutions

• Main objective is to use power to transform the total institutional fabric of a country to meet an ideological goal. 

• Because of ambitious goals, violence and resulting terror often become necessary tools to destroy any obstacle to change. 

• Destroys enemies of the ideology and eliminates an individual's ability to aspire to a create freedom. 

• Terror and violence used to break down existing institutions and remake them in the leadership's own image.  

• This doesn’t mean all violent regimes are this

• This often emerges when those who have come to power profess a radical or revolutionary political attitude that rejects the status quo and sees dramatic, often revolutionary change as indispensable and violence as necessary or even positive force toward that goal. 

Resource Curse

Theory of development in which the existence of natural resources in a given state is a barrier to modernization and democracy

• Resources in ground give leaders the wealth necessary to run the state without taxation 

• When not needing to tax, they can ignore political demands 

• Because nat. Resources not portable, those in power know they can’t take those with them when they give up power. 

Populism

A political view that does not have a consistent ideological foundation, but that emphasizes hostility toward elites and established state and economic institutions and favors greater power in the hand of the public.

Doesn't necessarily lead to nondemocracy, but can destabilize democratic practices. 

Coercion

Compelling individuals by the use or threat of violence or other punishment

Co-optation

The process by which individuals outside an organization are brought into a beneficial relationship with it, making them dependent on the regime for certain rewards

Corporatism

A method of co-optation whereby authoritarian systems create or sanction a limited number of organizations to represent the interests of the public and restrict those not set up or approved by the state

• Meant to replace inde. Orgs. With a handful that alone are licensed ot speak for various sectors of soci. 

• Arranges society so that each org. Is empowered by the state to have a monop. Of representation over a given issue or segment of society. 

• State, society, and the market under this are viewed as a single organic body 

• Can be an effective form of control for it gives the public a limited influence (or at least the pretense of influence) in the policy-making process. 

• For an average indi., a state-sanctioned org. Is better than none at all and many willingly participate. 

• This should be distinguished from what is called neo-corporatism, a more open variant found in some social democracies that encourages coordination between business, labor, and the state. 

Clientelism

A process whereby the state co-opts members of the public by providing specific benefits or favors to a single person or a small group in return for public support

• Relies on individual patronage rather than orgs. That serve a large group of peop. 

• Does not require a set of sanctioned and licensed orgs. But allows those in power to target and respond to indis. And groups as they see fit, trading benefits for particular forms of support. 

• In both this and corporatism, the state has a number of perquisites it can use in co-opting indis. 

• Jobs within the state or in state-run sectors of the economy, special access to such goods as schools or medical care, and kickbacks and bribes are a few of the tools in its arsenal. 

Rent Seeking

Privileged economic benefits mediated by political power

• This can take forms such as licenses, lucrative state contracts, etc. 

• Not absent in democs. But viewed as a threat to the sys. 

Kleptocracy

“Rule by theft,” where those in power seek only to drain the state of assets and resources

Personal and Monarchial Rule

• Drawing on charismatic or traditional legitimacy, these often rest on the claim that one person alone is fit to run the country, with no clear regime or holes to constrain that person's rule. 

• State and society are commonly taken to be possessions of the leader, to be dispensed with as they see fit. 

• Ruler is not a subject of the state; rather, the state and society are subjects of the ruler. 

• Ideology may be weak or absent, since rulers justify their control through the logic that they alone are the embodiment of the people and therefore uniquely qualified to act on the people's behalf. 

• This claim may be couple with a strong personality cult or a reliance on the traditional authority of bloodlines. 

Patrimonialism

A variant of clientelism whereby a ruler depends on a collection of supporters within the state who gain direct benefits in return of enforcing the ruler’s will.

Military Rule

• Where governments and states are struggling with legitimacy and stability, often as a result of modernization, and where there is a high level of public unrest or violence, the military has sometimes chosen to intervene directly in politics, seeing itself as the only organized force able to ensure stability. 

• Often combined with a sense among mili. Leaders that the current gov. Or regime threatens the military's or the country's interests and should be removed. 

• May even have widespread sup. Of the pub., especially if people believe that the mili. Can bring an end to corruption of political violence, prevent rev., and restore stability. 

• Typically emerges through a coup d'état 

• Some cases military actors may claim that they have seized control reluctantly, promising to return the state and gov. To civilian rule once stability has been restored. 

• Often political parties and most civil liberties are restricted; civilian political leaders or opponents of mili. Rule are arrested and may be killed. 

• The use of coercion is a common aspect as by nature militaries possess an overwhelming capacity for vio. 

• Usually lacks both a specific ideology or traditional source of authority. 

• If military seeks legitimacy, is must often fall back on rational authority. 

Bureaucratic Authoritarianism

A system in which the state bureaucracy and the military share a belief that a technocratic leadership, focused on rational, objective, and technical expertise, can solve the problems of the country without public participation

One-Party Rule

• A regime in which a single political party monopolizes politics and bans other parties or excludes them from power. 

• Ruling party serves several corporatist functions 

• It helps incorporate the people into the political regime through membership and participation 

• Typically the party includes only a small minority of the pop. 

• Through membership, the party can rely on a large segment of the public that is willing to help dev. And support the policies of nondem. Rule as well as to transmit information back to the leadership on developments in all aspects of society. 

• These often broken down into smaller units, or "cells", that operate at the uni., workplace, or neighborhood level. 

• These cells report back to higher levels of the party, help deal with local probs. And concerns, and keep tabs on soci. As a whole. 

• No area is untouched by the presence of the party, and this helps the party maintain control over the pub. 

• In return for sup., mems. Of the party are often granted privileges that are otherwise denied to the public at large. 

• They may have access to certain resources that nonmembers don't. 

• Positions in gov. And other imp. Areas of the econ. Or soci. Are also reserved. 

• One imp. Result of membership is that a large group of indis. Directly benegit from the regime and are therefore willing to defend it. 

• This can backfire as those who embrace membership only for the personal benefits and not out of any ideological conviction may quickly desert the leadership in a time of crisis. 

• Party serves as a mechanism for mobilization. 

• The leadership uses the party as an instrument to deliver propaganda that extols the virtues of the current regime and government; it relies on its rank-and-file members, through demonstrations and mass rallies, to give the appearance of widespread public support and enthusiasm for the leadership. 

• Can also use mems. To control and harass those who don't sup. The regime but co-optation is the primary mechanism. 

• Other parties may exist but they are typically highly restricted by th gov. So they cannot challenge the current regime. 

Theocracy

• Likely one of the oldest forms of rule. 

• Literally means "rule by God", and a theocratic regime can be founded on any number of faiths and variations within them. 

• Some say none of these exist 

• But several countries have some elements 

• Such a merger of fundamentalism, where faith is the sole source of the regime's auth., would render democratic instits. Subordinate or in contradiction to the perceived will of god. 

• However, as with fundamentalism in general, we should not confuse religiosity, or even a wish for religion to play a greater role in politics, with a desire for this 

Illiberal Regimes

A regime where democratic institutions that rest on the rule of law are weakly institutionalized and poorly respected

• Rule of law is weak. As a result, all democ. Instits. That rest on the rule of law are weakly institutionalized and poorly respected. 

• Executives, legislatures, and judiciaries have their respective arenas of authority; the public enjoys the right to vote; elections take place regularly; and political parties compete. But these institutions and processes are circumscribed or unpredictable in ways inconsistent with democracy. 

• Executives may hold an overwhelming degree of power while the country has a limited ability to remove its executive. 

• Executives in these systems often rely on referenda to bypass the state and confirm executive power. 

• Legislatures in turn are less able to check the power of the executive, and judicial instits. Such as constitutional courts are often packed with the sups. Of those in pow.  

• While political competition may exist on paper, parties and groups are restricted and harassed 

• Gov. Monops. Over print and electronic media are used to deny the opposition a public platform, while the judicial system is used to harass opponents. 

• The mili. May not be subject to civilian control, and elecs. Are manipulated through changing electoral rules, vote buying, intimidation, or barring candidates from running.