Varieties of Dictatorship

Varieties of Dictatorship

Typology of Dictatorships

  • Classification Basis: Dictatorships can be classified based on support coalitions or inner sanctum characteristics.

    • Monarchic Dictatorships: Power based on family/kin networks.

    • Military Dictatorships: Power based on armed forces' support.

    • Civilian Dictatorships: All other autocracies not based on monarchy or military.

Key Concepts

  • Support Coalition: Dictators must keep their support coalitions happy to maintain power; replacing leaders is often done by coalition defectors.

  • Regime Persistence: Certain leader types can influence the long-term stability of authoritarian regimes.

Types of Dictatorships

Monarchic Dictatorships

  • Examples: Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, eSwatini.

  • Characteristics:

    • Typically less violent and more politically stable.

    • Longer tenure in power compared to other authoritarian leaders.

    • Better property rights and economic growth visibility.

    • Leader’s promises to share rents due to established political culture.

Military Dictatorships

  • Examples: Thailand, Myanmar, Chad, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Sudan.

  • Threats: Stability often endangered by internal military conflicts.

  • Coup Statistics: A noticeable decline in military coups since the 1960s; military regimes often shift to democracy more readily than others.

Civilian Dictatorships

  • Examples: Belarus, China, Egypt, North Korea, Russia, Syria.

  • Characteristics:

    • Lack of immediate institutional support; rely on regime parties or charismatic leadership.

    • Subcategories:

    1. Dominant-party Dictatorships: One party controls access to power, engages in electoral fraud.

    2. Personalist Dictatorships: Leadership relies heavily on personal control and strong state violence mechanisms.

Challenges of Authoritarian Rule

Problem of Power-sharing

  • Intra-elite Conflict: Conflicts arise within the ruling elite over how powers and rents are shared.

  • Self-Enforcement: Power-sharing arrangements must be self-enforcing; threat of violence exists as a key resolution method.

  • Monitoring Difficulties: Support coalitions often face uncertainty in monitoring the dictator's violation of power-sharing agreements, leading to possible failure or coup efforts.

Problem of Control

  • Strategies: Dictators can repress or co-opt the masses to maintain control.

  • Repression Trade-off: Strengthening military/police for control can also empower them against the dictator.

  • Cooptation: Establishing institutions to give masses a stake in the regime's survival, thereby reducing direct opposition.

Selectorate Theory

  • Fundamentals: Leaders motivated to maintain power act differently depending on the structure of their selectorate and winning coalition.

  • Implications: The distribution of public/private goods depends on the size of the winning coalition which affects loyalty and cooperation among supporters.

  • Corruption Risks: Small winning coalitions lead to kleptocracy where leaders neglect public policy for personal gain; larger coalitions encourage better governance due to collective accountability.

Power-Sharing Agreements

  • Challenges: Difficulties in creating stable agreements stem from both sides' inability to credibly commit to not using increased power for future negotiations.

  • War as Inefficient Resolution: The potential benefit of war is often outweighed by the benefits of establishing stable peace agreements, but the changing power dynamics complicate negotiations.

Conclusion

  • Each type of dictatorship presents unique governance dynamics and stipulations that require specific strategies for regime stability and control, emphasizing the balance between power-sharing, monitoring, and strategic cooptation of resources.