Politics - authoritarianism

Lecture 5

Authoritarianism/nondemocratic regime definition.

A political system in which a small group of individuals exercise poewr over the state whithout being constitutionally responsible to the public.

Characteristics of nondemocratic regimes.

• Built around the restriction of individual freedom.

• The public plays no role in selecting or removing leaders from office.

• Strong institutional underpinning of ideology.

  • Either be ideological, or ‘for the people’ → no ideology at all.

• Public lacks the right to coose personal liberties that maight seem as a threat to those in power.

What is an example that can be used to describe a nondemocratic regime?

The situation in Zimbabwe. They do not seek to provide individual freedom nor equality, instead they only focus on enhancing the power of those in control.

Totalitarianism - characteristics.

• Highly centralized.

• Well-defined ideology

• Seeks to transforms and merge the institutions of state, society and the economy.

• Main objective: tranform total institutional fabric to meet an ideological goal.

• Violence and terror are often necessary tools to destroy any obstacle to change.

Explain the case of North Korean totalitarianism.

• Single leader, with his own unique ideology → Juche.

• Personality cult: Kim dynasty.

• Ideology and ideological mobilization is woven into the entire favric of society.

• Oppression: human rights violations, concentration camps.

What are the totalitarian mechanisms for control used in NK?

Surveillance through neighborhood committees, political organizations, the Worker’s party.

When do totalitarian regimes often emerge?

When those in power have a radical or reactionary political attitude.

How can a lack of modernization reinforce non-democracy?

• Poor and poorly developed societies are least likely to be democratic.

• Importance of an urban and educated middle class: generates demand for democracy.

  • If there isn’t one, there will be polarization between those in power.

How can modernization reinforce non-democracy?

• Modernization can be disruptive and uneven.

• Urbanization transforms institutions and norms.

• Technology can leave people behind.

• Economies and job markets shift.

• Social values and gender relations change.

Example of a modern but non-democratic country.

Turkey. It has become more develpped and urbanized, but it has become less democratic over time.

Why do elites become more resistant to sharing power?

They fear losing their economic assets or losing thier lives in retribution for past actions.

Explain what an oligarchy is.

• Rule by few.

• A form of government in which power rests with a small number of people.

Examples of oligarchies.

Russia: oligarchs gained control of state resources in the early 1990s, and Iran: clerical oligarchy.

Civil society’s role in nondemocratic rule.

• A weak civil society may strengthen nondemocracy.

• The regime might act to absorb, monitor or destroy independent organization.

• Growing civil societies are a danger to nondemocratic rule.

Populism - characteristics.

• Not a consistent ideological foundation.

• Emphasizes hostility toward elites.

• Established state and economic institutions.

• Favours greater power in the hands of the public.

• Anti-institutional and anti-governmental orientation.

• “People need to take back the state and set it on the correct path”

How can international actors influence regime type?

Through foreign occipation, imperial legacy and by backing non-democratic forces.

Argument against culture and democracy.

Democracy is a Western/Christian construct, so the values of individualism and secularism may not translate into other regions.

But culture shapes the form of democracy, it does not determine its presence or absence.

In what ways do nondemocratic regimes maintain political control?

Through either coericon and surveillance, with co-optation, or personality cults.

Co-optation definition.

The process by which individuals outside an organization are brought into a beneficial relationship with the state. This makes them dependent on the regime for certain rewards.

What are two example of the use of surveillance and coersion?

1. Example death squads in Latam → police or military troops that targeted individuals suspected of harboring political views opposed to the regime.

2. Stalin and totalitarian regime: purges → widespread arrests to those who were accused of political sabotage and anti-Soviet views.

What are the 2 co-optation strategies?

Corporatism and Clientelism.

Explain corporatism.

• Method in which nondemocratic regimes attemp to solidify their control over the public by creating or sanctioning a limited number of organizations to represent the interests of the public and restruct those not set up by the state.

• State’s monopoly of representation over a given issue or segment of society.

• Limited influence for the public to be involved in policymaking.

What are institutions that can be co-opted with coporatism.

Churches, labour unions, agricultural associations, student groups, etc.

Approved, funded and partially controlled by the state.

Why do people go along with corporatism?

Because people believe that a state-sanctioned organization is better than non at all, and many willingly participate in the hopes that their needs will be met.

What is neo-corporatism?

A more open variant found in some social democracies that encourages coordination between business, labour and the state.

Explain clientelism.

It is when the state co-opts members of the public by providing specific benefits to people in return for public support. The state may reward them with jobs, good and rent seeking. It can decline into kleptocracy: rule by theft.

Explain rent-seeking.

A process in which political leaders essentially rent out parts of the state to their patrons, who as a result control public goods that would otherwise be distributed in nonpolitical ways.

Is clientelism only present in non democratic regimes?

No, it can also be present in democracies, although it is seen as a threat to them.

What are the 5 models of nondemocratic rule?

1. Personal and monarchical rule

2. Military rule

3. One-party rule

4. Theocracy

5. Illiberal regimes

Personal/Monarchical rule - characteristics.

• Claim that one person alone is fit to run the country.

• Charismatic/traditional legitimacy.

• The state and society are subjects of the ruler.

• They justify their control through the logic that they alone are the embodiment of the people and therefore uniquely qualified to act on their behalf.

• Include personality cults or bloodlines.

• Ideology may be weak or absent.

• Leader relies on charismatic or traditional authority to maintain power.

Patrimonialism definition.

Narrowed form of clientelism where rulers trade benefits for political support. Can be found in Russia for eample.

Personality cults - characteristics.

• Emotional appeal to legitimize rule.

• The leader as not merely a political figure, but as someone who embodies the spirit of the nation.

  • more wisdome and strength than the average individual.

• Quasi-religious, all-seeing, all-knowing.

• Corruption.

• Active use of media and art to reinforce their image.

Examples of personality cults.

Romania in 1989 and Putin in Russia.

Military rule - characteristics.

• Typically emerged through a coup d’état.

• Pollitical parties and most civil liberties are restricted.

• Use of coercion.

• The monopoly of violence that characterizes militaries tends to be the strongest means of control.

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

Bureaucratic authoritarianism definition.

A regime in which the state bureaucracy and the military share a belief that a technocratic leader can solve the problems of the country, unlike the emotional or irrational ideologically based parties.

One-party rule - characteristics.

• Monopoly of politics and bans other parties from power.

• Ruling party serves corporatist functions.

  • Incorporates people through membership and participation.

• Often only includes a small minority of the population.

• No area is untouched by the presenceof the party.

• Usually associated with communism and fascism.

• Always present in totalitarianism.

• Propaganda.

Theocracy - characteristics.

• “Rule by God.”

• No remaining theocracies but there are countries that have some elements of theocratic rule.

• Derive their power from their claim to rule on behalf of God.

• Faith as the sole source of the regime’s authority.

• Renders democratic institutions subordinate or in contradiction tot he perceived will of God.

Example of a theocracy.

Ancient Egypt.

Illiberal regimes - characteristics.

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

• Weak or poorly respected rule of law.

• Executives hold an overwhelming degree of power.

• Elections are manipulated.

• Few civil rights or individual freedoms.

• Poorly institutionalization of institutions.

• Looks like democracies on paper, but less in practice.

Communism defintion.

Ideology (by Karl Marx) that seeks to create human equality by eliminating private property and market forces. Seek to completely transform politics, economies and societies.

When did most communist states collapse?

By the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Base definition.

The economic system of a society, made up of technology (means of production) and class relations between people (the relations of production).

Bourgeoisie definition.

Property-owning class.

Communism according to Marx.

The final stage of history once capitalism is overthrown and the dictatorship of the proletariat destroy its remaining traces. The state and politics would disappear, and society and the economy would be based on equality and cooperation.

Dialectical materialism definition.

Process of historical change that is not evolutionary but revolutionary. The existing base and superstructure would come into conflict with new tech innovations → generate opposition to the existing order → revolution, overthwoing of the old base and superstructure.

Dictatorship of the proletariat according to Marxist Theory.

Temporary period after capitalism has been overthrown during which traces of the old base and superstructre are eradicated.

False consciousness according to Marxist Theory.

Failure to understand the nature of one’s exploitation; essentially amounts to 'buying into’ the superstructure.

Proletariat meaning.

Working class.

Superstructure according to Marxist Theory.

All noneconomic institutions in a society (religion, culture, national identity). These ideas and values derive from the base and serve to legitimize the current system of exploitation.

Surplus value of labour in Marxist Theory.

The value invested in any human-made good that can be used by another individual. Exploitation results when one personal group extracts the surplus values from another.

What is the vanguard of the proletariat in Marxist Theory?

It is Lenin’s argument that because of false consciousness, an elite communist party would have to carry out revolution. Otherwise, historical conditions would not automatically lead to capitalism’s demise.

Explain the revolution of communism.

Marx believes that the changes in technology would increase tensions between rulers and rules, and this would lead to revolution (dialectical materialism). Socialism is seen as a transitional phase toward a time when private property and the state no longer exist (communism - end goal).

Feudalism → rise of the bourgeoisie → capitalist democracy → rise of the proletariat → dictatorship of the proletariat → withering away of the state → communist utopia.

Nomenklatura definition in Marxist Theory.

Politically sensitive or influential jobs in the state, society, or economy that were staffed by people chosen or approved by the Communist Party.

Explain what communist political economy entails.

• The state hold the means of production.

• No individual profit, unemployment, competition between firms and bankrupcy.

• No individual control over propery.

• Central planning replaces the market mechanism.
  Most of the nation’s means of production are naitonalized.

• The economy functions in essence as a single large firm whose sole employees are the public.

• The state provides extensive public goods and social servieces.

• Inequality and poverty are reduced.

Religion under communism.

Ideally it will disappear, but in reality it is suppressed, not eliminated.

Gender roles under communism.

Ideally men and women will be economically, socially and politically equal. In reality opportunities for women increase but they are still expencted to fulfil traditional duties in the home.

Sexuality under communism.

Ideally repressive institutions such as marriage will be replaced by an openly system of free love. But in reality many communist countries remained very sexually conservative.

Nationalism under communism.

Ideally, nationalism will be elimited bc it is a part of the elite’s divide and conquer strategy. But in reality, people still clung to old national and ethnic identities.

Explain communism’s sudden demise.

It happened because of economic stagnation and its combination with international crises. A new generation of reform-focused leaders emerged (like Gorbachev). He initiated the policies of openness and restructuring. This included limited forms of democratic participation and market-based incentives in the economy.

What were the consequences of the reform after communism?

• Ethnic groups and civil society groups pushed for greater freedom, and ethnic violence appears in some regions.

• The beneficiaries of the old system resisten change → instability.

• Eastern European countries broke from the Soviet orbit → USSR collapse in 1991.

How was the transformation of political institutions after the collapse of communism?

There was a reorganizing of the state and a constuction of a democratic regime. This involved:

• Separation of power between the branches of gov.

• Establish electoral laws.

• Regulate political parties.

• Choose between different kinds of executive and legislative institutions.

How was the transformation of economic institutions after the collapse of communism?

There was privatization (transfer of state-held property into private hands) and marketization (re-creation of the market forces of supply and demand).

How was the transformation of societal institutions after the collapse of communism?

There was a changing of identities. Peple adjusted to new realities and seeked new individual and collective identities.