POLI107 week 3 additional reading - Folch's Repression, political threats...' 2013

Flashcards about repression, political threats, and survival under autocracy

Repression

One of the two basic instruments dictators use to stay in power, along with the mobilization of political support.

Political Terror

Effective against threats from organized groups.

Restrictions on Civil Liberties

Essentially serve to prevent collective action.

Repression

Autocrats may use to retain power, and authoritarian regimes have been consistently found to exert more intensively than democracies.

Political Terror

Violations of physical integrity, such as killings, torture, and other brutal practices.

Civil Rights Restrictions

Restrictions on individuals’ civil rights aimed at limiting the coordination and mobilization capacities of groups and individuals.

Irregular Exits

Can exit power in a variety of ways which need to be distinguished from one another, such as coups, assassinations, civil wars, or revolutions.

Regular Exits

Dictators can exit power in a variety of ways which need to be distinguished from one another, such as resignations, elections, ‘step-downs,’ and elite turnover from within the party or the military.

Repression

The behavior that is applied by governments in an effort to bring about political quiescence and facilitate the continuity of the regime through some form of restriction or violation of political and civil liberties.

Repression

Violations of physical rights and restrictions on civil rights can reduce the risk of losing office, but through different mechanisms.

Restrictions on Civil Rights

Aimed at preventing coordination, thereby hampering collective action from within the population and other groups.

Violation of Physical Integrity

Specifically directed against those individuals or organized groups that already have collective action capacity and that have been identified as being opposition members or potential rivals from within the elite.

Political Terror is effective in reducing the likelihood of

Nonviolent and regular exits and coups.

Restrictions on civil rights reduce the likelihood of

Both types of ousters.