Nondemocracy

Nondemocracy Defined:

  • Regimes that lack democracy, sometimes called authoritarianism

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

  • Nondemocratic regime: a political regime controlled by a small group of individuals who exercise power over the state without being constitutionally responsible to the public

  • Not all authoritarian regimes are totalitarian

  • The term totalitarianism is frequently misused

    • Some call for abandoning the term

  • Totalitarianism: a nondemocratic regime that is highly centralized

Modernization and Nondemocratic Rule

  • Old thinking

    • Development leads to urbanization and education, which in turn leads the middle class to demand democracy

  • New thinking

    • Modernization sometimes reinforces nondemocracy

    • Modernization can be a disruptive and uneven process

      • Urbanization transforms institutions and norms

      • Technology can leave some behind

      • Economies and job markets shift

Elite and Non-Democratic Rule:

  • Entrenched elites are unwilling to share power

  • May be reinforced by the resource curse

    • Resource curse: a theory of development in which the existence of natural resources in a given state is a barrier to modernization and democratization

    • Resource curse basics

      • States generate resources without taxation

      • Unequal development stunts civil society

      • Resources are not portable, so control of resources requires controlling the state

  • A weak civil society may allow nondemocracy to survive

    • Example: the different paths of Zimbabwe and South Africa

  • A strong civil society may emerge, but still

    • Promote nondemocratic values

      • 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 hands of the public

    • Take on nondemocratic tendencies

      • Ethnic favoritism, xenophobia

    • Example: Hungary’s Viktor Orban

International Relations and Nondemocratic Rule

  • International actors influence regime type through

    • Foreign occupation

    • imperial legacy

    • backing nondemocratic forces

  • Examples:

    • Cold War era

      • USSR in Eastern Europe

      • United States in Iran (1953) or Chile (1973)

    • More recently: China and Russia in Africa and the Middle East

Nondemocratic Regimes and Political Control

Coercion and Surveillance

  • Coercion: compelling individuals by threatening their lives or livelihoods

    • Relies on the use of fear to discourage opposition

    • Tactics include killing, torture, job loss, and threats to family.

  • Can be targeted or indiscriminate violence

  • Often relies on surveillance to identify targets

Limits of Coercion:

  • It can undermine regime legitimacy

  • It may create more widespread grievances

  • It is costly to maintain

  • At least some people have to benefit from the regime, or there would be no soldiers to carry out the orders

Co-optation

  • Co-optation: the process by which individuals outside an organization are brought into a beneficial relationship with the state

    • Selectively provide benefits to key groups

    • Make the population dependent on the state for certain rewards

  • Two forms

    • Corporatism

    • Clientelism

  • Corporatism: a method in which nondemocratic regimes attempted to solidify their control over the public by creating or sanctioning a limited number of organizations to represent the interests of the public and restrict those not set up or approved by the state

  • Clientelism: the state co-opts members of the public by providing specific benefits to people in return for public support

    • States may reward supporters with jobs, goods, and/or rent-seeking

      • 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 a nonpolitical manner.

      • Can decline into kleptocracy: “rule by theft”; those in power seek only to drain the state of assets and resources

      • Examples

        • Zimbabwe’s mineral wealth

        • Russia’s energy interests

Personality Cults

  • Personality cults: veneration of leadership

    • Quasi-religious; emotional appeal to legitimize rule

  • Leader depiction

    • Embodies the spirit of the nation

    • Endowed with wisdom and strength far beyond the average individual

    • Active use of media and art to reinforce this image

  • Examples:

    • Iran (Supreme Leader)

    • Russia (Vladimir Putin)

    • North Korea (Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un

Military Rule

  • Rule by one or more military officials

    • Often brought to power through coup d’état

    • Sometimes follows periods of unrest; military leaders promise stability

  • Examples

    • Chile (1970s)

    • Egypt since 2011

  • Main tool of control: coercion

  • May focus on technocratic rule

    • Bureaucratic authoritarianism: a system in which the state bureaucracy leadership, focused on rational objective and technical expertise, can solve the problems of the country without relying on political participation

One Party Rule

  • A single political party monopolizes politics

    • All other parties are banned/ excluded from power

    • No area is untouched by the presence of the party, helping the party to maintain control over the public

  • Main tools of control: co-optation

Theocracy:

  • “Rule by God”

    • Religion as the foundation of the regime

  • Main tools of control

    • traditional legitimacy

    • corporatism

  • No pure cases of modern theocracies

    • Saudi Arabia: combines theocratic and monarchic

    • The Islamic Republic of Iran: mostly theocratic, some illiberal regime features

Illiberal Regimes:

  • Illiberal regimes: also known as hybrid, electoral authoritarian, and semi-democratic regimes

    • Combine democratic and nondemocratic elements

    • Growing in prominence around the world

  • Examples: Cameroon, Russia, Venezuela

  • Common features

    • Weak or poorly respected rule of law

    • Executives hold an overwhelming degree of power

    • Elections are manipulated

    • Few civil freedoms

Summary:

  • Nondemocracy refers to a broad category of states

  • The upheaval of modernization, elite resource control, societal structures, and international actors

  • Major categories of nondemocratic rule include monarchies, military rule, one-party states, theocracies, and illiberal regimes

  • While there are more democracies now than there were 30 years ago, nondemocracy has been on the rise in recent years