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Chapter 8: Non-democratic Regimes

Defining Non-democratic Rule

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

  • Non-democratic regime: a political regime that is controlled by a small group of individuals who exercise power over the state without being constitutionally responsible to the public

The Common Features of Nondemocratic Regimes

In Focus: Non-democratic Regimes

  • A small group of individuals exercise power over the state.

  • Government is not constitutionally responsible to the public.

  • The public has little or no role in selecting leaders.

  • Individual freedom is restricted.

  • Non-democratic regimes may be institutionalized and legitimate.

Totalitarianism and Non-democratic Rule

Totalitarianism versus Authoritarianism

  • 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, possessing some form of strong ideology that seeks to transform and absorb fundamental aspects of state, society, and the economy, using a wide array of institutions

    • Capacity rather than a way of governance

The Key Features of Totalitarianism

In Focus: Totalitarian Regimes…

  • Seek to control and transform all aspects of the state, society, and economy.

  • Use violence as a tool for remaking institutions.

  • Have a strong ideological goal.

  • Have arisen relatively rarely.

Totlitarianism’s Goals

  • Fulfill some historical destiny

  • Individual is completely subordinated to the goals of the state

  • Early uses (1920s):

    • Carl Schmitt: Totalstaat

    • Italian fascists (Mussolini)

    • Believed liberal democracy was outdated

Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century

Key factors for regime success:

  • Cult of personality

    • Personality cults: veneration of leadership

      • Quasi-religious; emotional appeal to legitimize rule

    • Leader depiction

      • Embodies spirit of the nation

      • Endowed with wisdom and strength far beyond 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, Kim Jong-Un)

  • Systematic use of terror

    • The Soviet Union under Stalin

      • The entire economy under state control

      • Used systematic terror and a developed cult of personality

    • Hitler’s Germany

      • A strong, centralized regime which used fascist ideology, violence, and terror

      • Attempted to eliminate ethnic groups to create a homogenous state

      • Social organizations were placed under the Nazi Party’s control; economy remained private

    • Mao’s China

      • Most elements of society placed under state control and systematic terror was employed to maintain control and power

      • Mao cultivated his image as an infallible and godlike ruler

      • Unlike Stalin, Mao’s totalitarian regime failed to modernize China and caused economic stagnation and international isolation

  • Exertion of state control over economic, political, and civil society

What is Authoritarianism?

  • Definition: Regimes that lack pluralism (i.e. legitimate ideological alternatives to state ideology) and are governed by a stable core person, or group of people who attempt to maintain some degree of public legitimacy.

  • Contrast with totalitarianism (Juan Linz definition):

    1. Limited political pluralism

    2. No official ideology (but “mentalities”)

    3. Much less mobilization, more depoliticization

    4. “a leader or occasionally a small group exercises power within formally ill-defined limits but actually quite predictable ones”

Goal of Authoritarian Leaders

  1. Stay in power

  2. If possible, solve societal problems

    • Not necessarily in ways prescribed by rigid, unchanging ideologies

    • More practical

  3. Get rich

    • Monopolies over resources

    • More control over their distribution

  4. Origins and Sources of Non-democratic Rule

Possible Explanations for Nondemocratic Rule

  • Modernization

  • Elites

  • Civil society

  • International relations

  • Political culture

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.

      • Social values and gender relations change.

  • Nondemocratic leaders promise stability and order.

Elites and Nondemocratic Rule

  • Entrenched elites are unwilling to share power.

  • May be reinforced by resource curse.

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

    • Resource curse basics

      • State generates resources without taxation.

      • Unequal development stunts civil society.

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

Society and Nondemocratic Rule

  • 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

Culture and Nondemocratic Rule

  • Old thinking

    • Democracy is a Western/Christian construct.

    • Values of individualism and secularism may not translate into other regions.

  • Counter argument

    • Every major cultural region of the world has democracy.

      • Asia: South Korea, Japan, Taiwan

      • MENA (Islamic World): Tunisia, Northern Cyprus

    • Culture shapes the form of democracy; it doesn’t determine its presence or absence.

Non-democratic Regimes and Political Control

How Do Authoritarian Leaders Maintain Political Control?

  • Coercion

  • Co-optation

  • Personality cults

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, threats to family.

  • Can be targeted or indiscriminate violence

  • Often relies on surveillance to identify targets

Examples of Coercion

  • Latin America

    • 1970s-1980s: “Death squads” arrested, tortured, and killed individuals suspected of harboring political views opposing the views.

    • Argentina’s “Dirty War” saw 30,000 people “disappeared.”

    • Death squads and their tactics have spread to many nondemocracies including Egypt, Zimbabwe, and Syria.

  • Soviet Union/Russia

    • Stalin’s widespread use of arrests, show trials, and forced labor camps

    • Putin’s use of targeted lawsuits and fines to deter civil society.

  • US government aided allied dictators in Latin America

  • Often trained and funded death squads

  • Target: “communists”

The 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 population dependent on state for certain rewards

  • Two forms

    • Corporatism

    • Clientelism

Co-Optation Strategy 1: Corporatism

  • Corporatism: a method by 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 restricting those not set up or approved by the state; a method of co-optation whereby authoritarian systems create or sanction a limited number of organizations to represent the interests of the public and restrict those not set up or approved by the state

  • Examples:

    • Spain/Portugal syndicates (1970s)

    • China’s limitations on religious groups

Idea behind Clientelism

  • “As long as [The Prince] does not rob the great majority of their property or their honour, they remain content. He then has to contend only with the restlessness of a few, and that can be dealt with easily and in a variety of ways.” - Niccolo Machiavelli

Co-optation Strategy 2: Clientelism

  • Clientelism: The state co-opts members of the public by providing specific benefits or favors to a single person or small group in return for public support

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

    • Rent-seeking: a process in which political leaders essentially use parts of the state to extract income for their supporters, giving them preferred access to public goods that would otherwise be distributed in a nonpolitical manner

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

Personality Cults

  • Personality cults: veneration of leadership

    • Quasi-religious; emotional appeal to legitimize rule

  • Leader depiction

    • Embodies spirit of the nation

    • Endowed with wisdom and strength far beyond 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, Kim Jong-Un)

Wrapping It Up: The Tactics of Control

In Focus: Nondemocratic Means of Control

  • Coercion: public obedience is enforced through violence and surveillance.

  • Co-optation: members of the public are brought into a beneficial relationship with the state and government, often through corporatism or clientelism.

  • Personality cult: the public is encouraged to obey the leader, based on his or her extraordinary qualities and compelling ideas.

Models of Non-democratic Rule

Types of Nondemocracies

  • Personal and monarchial rule

  • Military rule

  • One-party rule

  • Theocracy

  • Illiberal or hybrid regimes

Personal and Monarchial Rule

  • (Most often) rule by one leader

    • Ancient regime type

    • State and society are possessions of the ruler

  • Examples

    • Mobuto Sese Seko (Zaire/Democractic Republic of the Congo)

    • Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus)

  • Main tool of control: patrimonalism

    • Patrimonialism: an arrangement whereby a ruler depends on a collection of supporters within the state who gain direct benefits in return for enforcing the ruler’s will

    • Clientelism and personal networks

Military Rule

  • Rule by one or 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 and the military share a belief that a technocratic leadership, focused on rational, objective, and technical expertise, can solve the problems of the country without public 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

    • Corporatism and/or clientelism

  • Examples: China

    • Newspapers, youth organizations, unions are linked to Communist Party.

    • Party chooses those in office.

Chinese National People’s Congress

  • Seats

  • Chinese Communist Party: 2097

  • Jiusan Society: 63

  • China Democratic League: 57

  • China National Democratic Construction Association: 57

  • Chinese Peasants’ and Workers’ Democratic Party: 54

  • Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang: 44

  • China Zhi Gong Party: 38

  • Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League: 13

  • Independent: 472

Ethiopian Parliament

  • 547 members

  • Yellow: Prosperity Party

  • Red: TPLF (Banned in January 2021)

Theocracy

  • “Rule by God”

    • Religion as the foundation of the regime

  • Main tools of control

    • Traditional legitimacy

    • Corporatism

  • No purse cases of modern theocracies

    • Saudi Arabia: combines theocratic and monarchic

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

Iranian Theocracy: Totalitarian, Authoritarian, or Illiberal?

  • Secular monarchy overthrown in 1929; replaced with theocratic regime

  • Islamic criteria instilled in all aspects of society via the constitution

  • Directly elected president

  • Supreme leader appointed for life by Assembly of Experts; has power over government

  • An unelected Guardian Council oversees both elections and parliament

  • The judicial system enforces religious law

  • Regime can be viewed as totalitarian, but it lacks capacity to destroy and remake existing institutions

  • It is not a fully illiberal regime, as there are elections, but candidates are regularly rejected

Illiberal Regimes

  • Illiberal regimes: also known as hybrid, electoral authoritarian, and semi-democratic regime where democratic institutions that rest on the rule of law are weakly institutionalized and poorly respected

    • Combine democratic and nondemocratic elements

    • Growing in prominence around the world

  • Examples: Russia, Venezuela

  • Common features

    • Weak or poorly respected rule of law

    • Executives hold an overwhelming degree of power.

    • Elections are manipulated.

    • Few civil rights or individual freedoms.

Wrapping It Up: Types of Nondemocratic Rule

In Focus: Types of Nondemocratic Rule

Type

Definition

Primary Tools of Control

Personal and Monarchial Rule

Rule by a single leader with no clear regime or rules constraining that leadership

Patrimonalism: supporters within the state benefit directly from their alliance with the ruler (corruption)

Military Rule

Rule by one or more military officials, often brought to power through a coup d’état

Control of the armed forces, sometimes also allied with businesses and state elites (bureautic authoritarianism)

One-Party Rule

Rule by one political party that bans or excludes other groups from power

Large party membership helps mobilize support and maintain public control, often in return for political or economic benefits (corporatism, clientelism)

Theocracy

“Rule by God”; holy texts serve as foundation for regime and politics

Religious leadership and political leadership fused into single sovereign authority

Illiberal Regimes

Rule by an elected leadership through procedures of questionable democratic legitimacy

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

An Era of Democratic Backsliding

  • More democracies now than 30 years ago

  • But democracy in decline over last decade

  • Partly free transitioning to not free

  • Some “free” societies becoming less free

Authoritarian Breakdown

  • Domestic

    • Economic crisis

    • Economic/political reforms backfire

      • E.g., Partial liberalization “Accidental” full liberalization

        • USSR

    • Military leaves government/turns against government

  • International

    • Pressure from allies/donors to democratize

    • Uprisings in other countries inspire people to rise up

      • E.g., Arab Spring, Eastern European revolutions

In Sum: Retreat or Retrenchment for Non-democratic Regimes?

  • Nondemocracy refers to a broad category of states.

  • The upheaval of modernization, elite resource control, societal structures, international actors, and culture may reinforce nondemocratic rule.

  • Nondemocratic regimes may rely on coercion, co-optation, or personality cults to maintain control.

  • 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.

Key Terms

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

  2. Bureaucratic authoritarianism - a system in which the state bureaucracy and the military share a belief that a technocratic leadership, focused on rational, objective, and technical expertise, can solve the problems of the country without public participation

  3. Clientelism - a process whereby the state co-opts members of the public by providing specific benefits or favors to a single person or a small group in return for public support

  4. Corporatism - a method of co-optation whereby authoritarian systems create or sanction a limited number of organizations to represent the interests of the public and restrict those not set up or approved by the state

  5. Illiberal regime - a regime where democratic institutions that rest upon the rule of law are weakly institutionalized and poorly respected

  6. Kleptocracy - “rule by theft,” where those in power seek only to drain the state of assets and resources

  7. Nondemocratic regime - a political regime that is controlled by a small group of individuals who exercise power over the state without being constitutionally responsible to the public

  8. Patrimonialism - an arrangement whereby a ruler depends on a collection of supporters within the state who gain direct benefits in return for enforcing the ruler’s will

  9. 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

  10. Rent seeking - a process in which political leaders essentially use parts of the state to extract income for their supporters, giving them preferred access to public goods that would otherwise be distributed in a nonpolitical manner

  11. Resource trap - theory of development in which the existence of natural resources in a given state is a barrier to modernization and democracy

  12. Totalitarianism - a nondemocratic regime that is highly centralized, possessing some form of strong ideology that seeks to transform and absorb fundamental aspects of state, society, and the economy, using a wide array of institutions

KP

Chapter 8: Non-democratic Regimes

Defining Non-democratic Rule

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

  • Non-democratic regime: a political regime that is controlled by a small group of individuals who exercise power over the state without being constitutionally responsible to the public

The Common Features of Nondemocratic Regimes

In Focus: Non-democratic Regimes

  • A small group of individuals exercise power over the state.

  • Government is not constitutionally responsible to the public.

  • The public has little or no role in selecting leaders.

  • Individual freedom is restricted.

  • Non-democratic regimes may be institutionalized and legitimate.

Totalitarianism and Non-democratic Rule

Totalitarianism versus Authoritarianism

  • 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, possessing some form of strong ideology that seeks to transform and absorb fundamental aspects of state, society, and the economy, using a wide array of institutions

    • Capacity rather than a way of governance

The Key Features of Totalitarianism

In Focus: Totalitarian Regimes…

  • Seek to control and transform all aspects of the state, society, and economy.

  • Use violence as a tool for remaking institutions.

  • Have a strong ideological goal.

  • Have arisen relatively rarely.

Totlitarianism’s Goals

  • Fulfill some historical destiny

  • Individual is completely subordinated to the goals of the state

  • Early uses (1920s):

    • Carl Schmitt: Totalstaat

    • Italian fascists (Mussolini)

    • Believed liberal democracy was outdated

Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century

Key factors for regime success:

  • Cult of personality

    • Personality cults: veneration of leadership

      • Quasi-religious; emotional appeal to legitimize rule

    • Leader depiction

      • Embodies spirit of the nation

      • Endowed with wisdom and strength far beyond 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, Kim Jong-Un)

  • Systematic use of terror

    • The Soviet Union under Stalin

      • The entire economy under state control

      • Used systematic terror and a developed cult of personality

    • Hitler’s Germany

      • A strong, centralized regime which used fascist ideology, violence, and terror

      • Attempted to eliminate ethnic groups to create a homogenous state

      • Social organizations were placed under the Nazi Party’s control; economy remained private

    • Mao’s China

      • Most elements of society placed under state control and systematic terror was employed to maintain control and power

      • Mao cultivated his image as an infallible and godlike ruler

      • Unlike Stalin, Mao’s totalitarian regime failed to modernize China and caused economic stagnation and international isolation

  • Exertion of state control over economic, political, and civil society

What is Authoritarianism?

  • Definition: Regimes that lack pluralism (i.e. legitimate ideological alternatives to state ideology) and are governed by a stable core person, or group of people who attempt to maintain some degree of public legitimacy.

  • Contrast with totalitarianism (Juan Linz definition):

    1. Limited political pluralism

    2. No official ideology (but “mentalities”)

    3. Much less mobilization, more depoliticization

    4. “a leader or occasionally a small group exercises power within formally ill-defined limits but actually quite predictable ones”

Goal of Authoritarian Leaders

  1. Stay in power

  2. If possible, solve societal problems

    • Not necessarily in ways prescribed by rigid, unchanging ideologies

    • More practical

  3. Get rich

    • Monopolies over resources

    • More control over their distribution

  4. Origins and Sources of Non-democratic Rule

Possible Explanations for Nondemocratic Rule

  • Modernization

  • Elites

  • Civil society

  • International relations

  • Political culture

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.

      • Social values and gender relations change.

  • Nondemocratic leaders promise stability and order.

Elites and Nondemocratic Rule

  • Entrenched elites are unwilling to share power.

  • May be reinforced by resource curse.

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

    • Resource curse basics

      • State generates resources without taxation.

      • Unequal development stunts civil society.

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

Society and Nondemocratic Rule

  • 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

Culture and Nondemocratic Rule

  • Old thinking

    • Democracy is a Western/Christian construct.

    • Values of individualism and secularism may not translate into other regions.

  • Counter argument

    • Every major cultural region of the world has democracy.

      • Asia: South Korea, Japan, Taiwan

      • MENA (Islamic World): Tunisia, Northern Cyprus

    • Culture shapes the form of democracy; it doesn’t determine its presence or absence.

Non-democratic Regimes and Political Control

How Do Authoritarian Leaders Maintain Political Control?

  • Coercion

  • Co-optation

  • Personality cults

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, threats to family.

  • Can be targeted or indiscriminate violence

  • Often relies on surveillance to identify targets

Examples of Coercion

  • Latin America

    • 1970s-1980s: “Death squads” arrested, tortured, and killed individuals suspected of harboring political views opposing the views.

    • Argentina’s “Dirty War” saw 30,000 people “disappeared.”

    • Death squads and their tactics have spread to many nondemocracies including Egypt, Zimbabwe, and Syria.

  • Soviet Union/Russia

    • Stalin’s widespread use of arrests, show trials, and forced labor camps

    • Putin’s use of targeted lawsuits and fines to deter civil society.

  • US government aided allied dictators in Latin America

  • Often trained and funded death squads

  • Target: “communists”

The 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 population dependent on state for certain rewards

  • Two forms

    • Corporatism

    • Clientelism

Co-Optation Strategy 1: Corporatism

  • Corporatism: a method by 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 restricting those not set up or approved by the state; a method of co-optation whereby authoritarian systems create or sanction a limited number of organizations to represent the interests of the public and restrict those not set up or approved by the state

  • Examples:

    • Spain/Portugal syndicates (1970s)

    • China’s limitations on religious groups

Idea behind Clientelism

  • “As long as [The Prince] does not rob the great majority of their property or their honour, they remain content. He then has to contend only with the restlessness of a few, and that can be dealt with easily and in a variety of ways.” - Niccolo Machiavelli

Co-optation Strategy 2: Clientelism

  • Clientelism: The state co-opts members of the public by providing specific benefits or favors to a single person or small group in return for public support

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

    • Rent-seeking: a process in which political leaders essentially use parts of the state to extract income for their supporters, giving them preferred access to public goods that would otherwise be distributed in a nonpolitical manner

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

Personality Cults

  • Personality cults: veneration of leadership

    • Quasi-religious; emotional appeal to legitimize rule

  • Leader depiction

    • Embodies spirit of the nation

    • Endowed with wisdom and strength far beyond 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, Kim Jong-Un)

Wrapping It Up: The Tactics of Control

In Focus: Nondemocratic Means of Control

  • Coercion: public obedience is enforced through violence and surveillance.

  • Co-optation: members of the public are brought into a beneficial relationship with the state and government, often through corporatism or clientelism.

  • Personality cult: the public is encouraged to obey the leader, based on his or her extraordinary qualities and compelling ideas.

Models of Non-democratic Rule

Types of Nondemocracies

  • Personal and monarchial rule

  • Military rule

  • One-party rule

  • Theocracy

  • Illiberal or hybrid regimes

Personal and Monarchial Rule

  • (Most often) rule by one leader

    • Ancient regime type

    • State and society are possessions of the ruler

  • Examples

    • Mobuto Sese Seko (Zaire/Democractic Republic of the Congo)

    • Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus)

  • Main tool of control: patrimonalism

    • Patrimonialism: an arrangement whereby a ruler depends on a collection of supporters within the state who gain direct benefits in return for enforcing the ruler’s will

    • Clientelism and personal networks

Military Rule

  • Rule by one or 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 and the military share a belief that a technocratic leadership, focused on rational, objective, and technical expertise, can solve the problems of the country without public 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

    • Corporatism and/or clientelism

  • Examples: China

    • Newspapers, youth organizations, unions are linked to Communist Party.

    • Party chooses those in office.

Chinese National People’s Congress

  • Seats

  • Chinese Communist Party: 2097

  • Jiusan Society: 63

  • China Democratic League: 57

  • China National Democratic Construction Association: 57

  • Chinese Peasants’ and Workers’ Democratic Party: 54

  • Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang: 44

  • China Zhi Gong Party: 38

  • Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League: 13

  • Independent: 472

Ethiopian Parliament

  • 547 members

  • Yellow: Prosperity Party

  • Red: TPLF (Banned in January 2021)

Theocracy

  • “Rule by God”

    • Religion as the foundation of the regime

  • Main tools of control

    • Traditional legitimacy

    • Corporatism

  • No purse cases of modern theocracies

    • Saudi Arabia: combines theocratic and monarchic

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

Iranian Theocracy: Totalitarian, Authoritarian, or Illiberal?

  • Secular monarchy overthrown in 1929; replaced with theocratic regime

  • Islamic criteria instilled in all aspects of society via the constitution

  • Directly elected president

  • Supreme leader appointed for life by Assembly of Experts; has power over government

  • An unelected Guardian Council oversees both elections and parliament

  • The judicial system enforces religious law

  • Regime can be viewed as totalitarian, but it lacks capacity to destroy and remake existing institutions

  • It is not a fully illiberal regime, as there are elections, but candidates are regularly rejected

Illiberal Regimes

  • Illiberal regimes: also known as hybrid, electoral authoritarian, and semi-democratic regime where democratic institutions that rest on the rule of law are weakly institutionalized and poorly respected

    • Combine democratic and nondemocratic elements

    • Growing in prominence around the world

  • Examples: Russia, Venezuela

  • Common features

    • Weak or poorly respected rule of law

    • Executives hold an overwhelming degree of power.

    • Elections are manipulated.

    • Few civil rights or individual freedoms.

Wrapping It Up: Types of Nondemocratic Rule

In Focus: Types of Nondemocratic Rule

Type

Definition

Primary Tools of Control

Personal and Monarchial Rule

Rule by a single leader with no clear regime or rules constraining that leadership

Patrimonalism: supporters within the state benefit directly from their alliance with the ruler (corruption)

Military Rule

Rule by one or more military officials, often brought to power through a coup d’état

Control of the armed forces, sometimes also allied with businesses and state elites (bureautic authoritarianism)

One-Party Rule

Rule by one political party that bans or excludes other groups from power

Large party membership helps mobilize support and maintain public control, often in return for political or economic benefits (corporatism, clientelism)

Theocracy

“Rule by God”; holy texts serve as foundation for regime and politics

Religious leadership and political leadership fused into single sovereign authority

Illiberal Regimes

Rule by an elected leadership through procedures of questionable democratic legitimacy

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

An Era of Democratic Backsliding

  • More democracies now than 30 years ago

  • But democracy in decline over last decade

  • Partly free transitioning to not free

  • Some “free” societies becoming less free

Authoritarian Breakdown

  • Domestic

    • Economic crisis

    • Economic/political reforms backfire

      • E.g., Partial liberalization “Accidental” full liberalization

        • USSR

    • Military leaves government/turns against government

  • International

    • Pressure from allies/donors to democratize

    • Uprisings in other countries inspire people to rise up

      • E.g., Arab Spring, Eastern European revolutions

In Sum: Retreat or Retrenchment for Non-democratic Regimes?

  • Nondemocracy refers to a broad category of states.

  • The upheaval of modernization, elite resource control, societal structures, international actors, and culture may reinforce nondemocratic rule.

  • Nondemocratic regimes may rely on coercion, co-optation, or personality cults to maintain control.

  • 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.

Key Terms

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

  2. Bureaucratic authoritarianism - a system in which the state bureaucracy and the military share a belief that a technocratic leadership, focused on rational, objective, and technical expertise, can solve the problems of the country without public participation

  3. Clientelism - a process whereby the state co-opts members of the public by providing specific benefits or favors to a single person or a small group in return for public support

  4. Corporatism - a method of co-optation whereby authoritarian systems create or sanction a limited number of organizations to represent the interests of the public and restrict those not set up or approved by the state

  5. Illiberal regime - a regime where democratic institutions that rest upon the rule of law are weakly institutionalized and poorly respected

  6. Kleptocracy - “rule by theft,” where those in power seek only to drain the state of assets and resources

  7. Nondemocratic regime - a political regime that is controlled by a small group of individuals who exercise power over the state without being constitutionally responsible to the public

  8. Patrimonialism - an arrangement whereby a ruler depends on a collection of supporters within the state who gain direct benefits in return for enforcing the ruler’s will

  9. 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

  10. Rent seeking - a process in which political leaders essentially use parts of the state to extract income for their supporters, giving them preferred access to public goods that would otherwise be distributed in a nonpolitical manner

  11. Resource trap - theory of development in which the existence of natural resources in a given state is a barrier to modernization and democracy

  12. Totalitarianism - a nondemocratic regime that is highly centralized, possessing some form of strong ideology that seeks to transform and absorb fundamental aspects of state, society, and the economy, using a wide array of institutions

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