Ermakoff, Conceptualizing Authoritarianism

Regimes of authoritarian stripes

generic conceptualization of authoritarianism

relates the “authoritarian” character of a regime to a practice of state power presumed to be unconditional, temporally unbounded and unaccountable

what are the problems with other conceptualizations of authoritarianism?

• very broad, even though regimes are governed in different ways

• so disparate because the category of authoritarian regime is residual =

• defined as non democratic, defined by a negative feature, what they are not instead of what they are

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What are Ermakoff's five modes of conceptualizing authoritarian regimes?

• A priori

• Scale-based

• Typological

• Dimensional

• Generic

What is the a priori approach

people are deprived of making the rules for their own life (don’t make the rules to laws which they are subjected) = heteronomy

problem - hard to measure and observe

What is the scale-based approach?

measure degrees of democracy or authoritarianism.

allows establish differences between democracy and authoritarianism

main contribution is that you can measure

They identify characteristics considered essential to democracy, such as elections, rights, freedoms, participation, pluralism, or accountability, and measure the extent to which those characteristics are present or absent.

problems:

• They can blur the boundary between democracy and authoritarianism.

• Intermediate scores may be difficult to interpret.

• Different political arrangements can receive the same score.

• Indicators may not accurately represent what researchers intend to measure.

• Coder judgments can create reliability concerns.

• Weighting, aggregation rules, and cutoff points can be arbitrary

basically, how to justify the indicators on the scale?

ex - Bollen's Democracy Index

What is the continuity vs. categorical debate?

Scale approach:
Democracy and authoritarianism differ by degree.

Categorical approach:
Democracy and authoritarianism differ by kind.

Critics of scales argue that regimes cannot meaningfully be described as “half-democratic” or “half-authoritarian.”

What is a typological approach?

divides authoritarian regimes into distinct categories or types.

• Who captures or controls state power

• How political power is organized and managed

4 requirements:

Empirically traceable
There must be observable indicators allowing cases to be classified.

2. Clear boundaries
Researchers must know where one category ends and another begins.

3. Mutually exclusive
One case should not ambiguously belong to multiple categories.

4. Exhaustive
Every relevant case should be classifiable somewhere.

ex- Geddes divides authoritarian regimes into:

• Single-party regimes

• Military regimes

• Personalist regimes

Why are hybrid regimes difficult for typologies?

Some regimes combine characteristics normally associated with both democracy and authoritarianism.

For example, a regime may conduct contested elections while failing other democratic standards.

Whether that regime counts as democratic depends on the definition being used

minimal procedural conception can classify a regime as democratic if contested elections determine who exercises executive or legislative power. (other defs could have more requirements, meaning same regimes could be classified differently)

seizure group

the small group from which leaders can emerge and which influences leadership choices and policy.

What is the dimensional approach?

constructs/considers dimensions of variations (dimensions = where authoritarian regimes vary = considering cases w/in this)

breaks authoritarianism into different analytically meaningful attributes

can give meaning to categories that would otherwise be too broad or residual.

dimensional analysis is strongest when dimensions are selected according to a clearly stated research problem

challenges:

• dimensions should be mutually exclusive, not overlapping and organized in a way that does not leave cases unaccounted for

What is Milan Svolik's example of a dimensional approach?

• Military involvement in politics

• Restrictions on political parties

• Legislative restrictions

• Executive selection

What is the generic approach to authoritarianism?

What is the common characteristic that actually makes something authoritarian

1- they are the justification for their own power (no accountability to elections, no electoral sanctions for them when holding their office)

2- no temporal limit to decisional capacity

3- lack of accountability (do not have to justify decisions)

ex - Putin