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  • Believed liberal democracy was outdated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

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