Chapter 6: Authoritarian Regimes

WHAT IS AUTHORITARIANISM?

• Authoritarian rule, in a sense, has existed since the beginning of human government.

• Democracy (as defined in the previous chapter) is a political system that has existed only since the twentieth century.

• Authoritarian regimes are distinguished by the way they invest political authority into a small group of individuals who exercise this authority without any constitutional responsibility to the public.

• Totalitarian regimes attempt to control and dominate every aspect of their people’s lives, including their career choices, family life, and their political and religious beliefs.

SOURCES OF AUTHORITARIAN RULE

Economic Factors

• Wealthier societies of the developed world are almost universally liberal democracies today.

• Widely distributed wealth among a large middle class deeply undermines authoritarian systems, as people with their own wealth have a “stake” in the political decisions of the state, and thus a strong desire for their demands to be heard in policymaking.

Social Factors

• The impact of political culture cannot be overstated in the emergence of democratic or authoritarian regimes.

• Statism, or the tendency to trust in the state for security and provision of basic needs, for example, emerged in Russia after centuries of foreign invasion and oppression.

Religious Factors

• While religion does not automatically push a society toward democracy or authoritarianism, some religions are more prone to nondemocratic tendencies than others.

• Catholicism and Islam, for example, establish formal religious hierarchies that must be respected by adherents to the faith, and advancement up the “ladder” of authority in each is determined by those who are already on the inside.

AUTHORITARIAN MEANS OF CONTROL

• It is important to note that these methods are also used by democratic regimes when necessary to implement a policy decision or maintain legitimacy, but they are more consistently observable in authoritarian systems, and they are frequently lacking the basic protections of civil liberties in the manner they are used.

Coercion

• Some regimes use coercion, which essentially means force, to compel people to submit to the regime.

• The tactics of coercion can include surveillance of perceived dissidents, as China employs through government agents who follow the regime’s critics, and Internet monitors who track people’s activities.

State Control of the Media

• While democratic regimes have free and independent media outlets that may investigate and criticize the conduct and policy decisions of those in power, authoritarian regimes use a variety of mechanisms to restrict the independence of the media to report news that could be problematic for the government.

Restrictions on Civil Society

• Civil society describes all the various organized groups people choose to join for the sake of a common interest.

  • These include religious organizations, interest groups, clubs, charitable organizations, labor unions, professional organizations, and many others.

• An independent civil society that can organize freely is a critical component of liberal democracy, as it allows the people to express their interests, organize to call attention to issues of concern, and demand state action at times.

  • Authoritarian regimes limit their ability to organize and express dissenting views to preserve the status quo.

Intimidation of Political Opposition

• Authoritarian regimes use many methods to prevent these opposition groups from competing for power fairly, in an effort to guarantee victory for the party in power.

• These methods include but are not limited to:

  • Arrest of opposition leaders and candidates for crimes (usually without much basis in applicable law)

  • Disqualification of party or candidate registration for bureaucratic or technical reasons

  • Questionable conduct of elections or ballot-counting processes

  • Restricting opposition candidates’ access to media

Cooptation

• Perhaps the most consistent tactic authoritarian regimes use is that of cooptation, or bringing groups and individuals into a beneficial relationship with the state so they do not challenge the legitimacy of the regime.

• One common form of this strategy is state corporatism, often shortened simply to corporatism.

• Another strategy of cooptation is patron-clientelism, or clientelism for short.

  • Rulers in authoritarian systems can place people into key positions of power with official authority, which can often be used (or abused) for personal gain.

• Corruption is a concept closely related to patron-clientelism and patron-client networks.

  • While most people have a general understanding of what corruption implies, it has a very specific definition in political science.

• Power is the ability to compel or otherwise motivate people to take actions that they otherwise would not.

  • Authority involves an official position with a defined role and jurisdiction that the state has entrusted an individual with.

• Personality Cult - More common to totalitarianism, some authoritarian regimes will attempt to portray the leader as some sort of near perfected version of the nation’s aspirations, embodying the wisdom, strength, and spirit of the people more generally.

TYPES OF AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES

• Personal Rule - Systems based on personal rule do not possess any clear rules or regime boundaries to constrain the ruler.

  • The regime can be reshaped to the interests of the ruler as he or she sees fit.

• Military Rule - Military rule usually comes as the result of a coup d’état (sometimes called a coup, for short), which occurs when the military of a particular state decides to remove the civil authorities from within and take control of the state itself.

• One-Party Rule - In a one-party state, also known as a dominant-party system, only one political party is either legally or practically able to compete for and exercise political power.

Theocracy

• The intention of a theocracy is rule by God, but practically, the power is held by religious ­leaders, and so a theocratic regime entrusts rule of the state to clerical religious authorities simultaneously with their religious role.

• Rules of the regime and laws passed by the government are often required to be consistent with religious doctrines asserted by clerics.

CONCLUSION: AUTHORITARIAN RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

• Despite the trend of democratization across many parts of the world in recent decades, authoritarianism has proven to be highly resilient and resistant to change.

• Political cultures that have been ingrained with authoritarian tendencies for many centuries are not likely to reform their institutions quickly, and even when political changes come through rapid coups or revolutions, many of those same authoritarian tendencies continue to emerge.