Authoritarian politics

Who's definition of autocracy includes the absence of free and fair elections, as well as absence of executives elected through free & competitive elections or legislature

Slovik

Who's features of autocracy includes a lack of independent authority to enforce agreements between the dictator and ruling coalition, as well as presence of violence

Slovik

Who describes the problems of authoritarian politics as control and power sharing

Slovik

Two principal ways dictators resolv problem of authoritarian control (Slovik)

Repression & co-optation

Three core features that turn authoritarian parties into effective instruments of control (Slovik)

Hierarchical assignment of service & benefit, political control over appointments, selective recruitment & repression

Definition of democratic country (Slovik)

Political conflicts are nonviolently resolved

Two distinct conceptual dimensions of political organization of dictatorships (Slovik)

Concentration of power in hands of dictator, personalization of political interactions

First path of political development outlined by Acemoglu, best outlined by Britain

Nondemocracy gradually leads to democracy

Second path of political development outlined by Acemoglu, best outlined by Argentina

Path leading to democracy collapses and cycle restarts

Third path of political development outlined by Acemoglu, best outlined by Singapore

Democracy never created because society is relatively egalitarian & prosperous

Fourth path of political development outlined by Acemoglu, best outlined by South Africa

Democracy is so threatening that elites use all means possible to avoid it

Simplifying assumptions of democratic regimes (Geddes)

Politicians want to get in office & remain there, best strategy for doing so is to give constituents what they want

Levitsky/Way classification of authoritarianism

Full vs competitive authoritarianism

What is missing in competitive authoritarianism? (Levitsky/Way)

Free elections, broad civil liberty protection, level playing field

Leverage (Levitsky/Way)

Governments' vulnerability to external democraticizing pressure

Linkage (Levitsky/Way)

Density of ties and cross-border flows among particular countries & US/EU/Western institutions

Guriev/Treisman regime classification

Overt autocrats, informational autocrats, democracies

Dictator's dilemma (Wintrobe)

Dictators can never trust the loyalty speeches of citizens/subordinates

Two instruments of dictator (Wintrobe)

Repression & loyalty/popularity

Low repression & low loyalty regime

Tinpot

High repression & low loyalty regime

Tyrant

High repression & high loyalty regime

Totalitarian

Low repression & high loyalty regime

Timocrat

Who raises repression with increase in popularity

Tyrants, totalitarians

Who lowers repression with increase in popularity

Tinpots, timocrats

Why does Wintrobe view military regimes as unstable?

The process of rewarding supporters (raising military pay & budget) raises costs of repression

First hypothesis of Roessler

Ethnic exclusion reduces the risk of the coup through increasing the risk of civil war

Second hypothesis of Roessler

Rules are more likely to employ ethnic exclusion against groups with coup-making capabilities