Durable Authoritarianism in an Age of Democracy
Author: Jason Brownlee
Publisher:
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 572
ISBN-13:
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Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization
Author: Jason Brownlee
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2007-07-23
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9780521689663
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFar from sweeping the globe uniformly, the 'third wave of democratization' left burgeoning republics and resilient dictatorships in its wake. Applying more than a year of original fieldwork in Egypt, Iran, Malaysia, and the Philippines, in this book Jason Brownlee shows that the mixed record of recent democratization is best deciphered through a historical and institutional approach to authoritarian rule. Exposing the internal organizations that structure elite conflict, Brownlee demonstrates why the critical soft-liners needed for democratic transitions have been dormant in Egypt and Malaysia but outspoken in Iran and the Philippines. By establishing how ruling parties originated and why they impede change, Brownlee illuminates the problem of contemporary authoritarianism and informs the promotion of durable democracy.
Revolution and Dictatorship
Author: Steven Levitsky
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2024-10-29
Total Pages: 656
ISBN-13: 0691223580
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhy the world’s most resilient dictatorships are products of violent revolution Revolution and Dictatorship explores why dictatorships born of social revolution—such as those in China, Cuba, Iran, the Soviet Union, and Vietnam—are extraordinarily durable, even in the face of economic crisis, large-scale policy failure, mass discontent, and intense external pressure. Few other modern autocracies have survived in the face of such extreme challenges. Drawing on comparative historical analysis, Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way argue that radical efforts to transform the social and geopolitical order trigger intense counterrevolutionary conflict, which initially threatens regime survival, but ultimately fosters the unity and state-building that supports authoritarianism. Although most revolutionary governments begin weak, they challenge powerful domestic and foreign actors, often bringing about civil or external wars. These counterrevolutionary wars pose a threat that can destroy new regimes, as in the cases of Afghanistan and Cambodia. Among regimes that survive, however, prolonged conflicts give rise to a cohesive ruling elite and a powerful and loyal coercive apparatus. This leads to the downfall of rival organizations and alternative centers of power, such as armies, churches, monarchies, and landowners, and helps to inoculate revolutionary regimes against elite defection, military coups, and mass protest—three principal sources of authoritarian breakdown. Looking at a range of revolutionary and nonrevolutionary regimes from across the globe, Revolution and Dictatorship shows why governments that emerge from violent conflict endure.
Competitive Authoritarianism
Author: Steven Levitsky
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2010-08-16
Total Pages:
ISBN-13: 1139491482
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBased on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was weaker and countries rarely democratized. In these cases, regime outcomes hinged on the character of state and ruling party organizations. Where incumbents possessed developed and cohesive coercive party structures, they could thwart opposition challenges, and competitive authoritarian regimes survived; where incumbents lacked such organizational tools, regimes were unstable but rarely democratized.
Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe
Author: Sheri Berman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-01-04
Total Pages: 512
ISBN-13: 0199373205
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAt the end of the twentieth century, many believed the story of European political development had come to an end. Modern democracy began in Europe, but for hundreds of years it competed with various forms of dictatorship. Now, though, the entire continent was in the democratic camp for the first time in history. But within a decade, this story had already begun to unravel. Some of the continent's newer democracies slid back towards dictatorship, while citizens in many of its older democracies began questioning democracy's functioning and even its legitimacy. And of course it is not merely in Europe where democracy is under siege. Across the globe the immense optimism accompanying the post-Cold War democratic wave has been replaced by pessimism. Many new democracies in Latin America, Africa, and Asia began "backsliding," while the Arab Spring quickly turned into the Arab winter. The victory of Donald Trump led many to wonder if it represented a threat to the future of liberal democracy in the United States. Indeed, it is increasingly common today for leaders, intellectuals, commentators and others to claim that rather than democracy, some form dictatorship or illiberal democracy is the wave of the future. In Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe, Sheri Berman traces the long history of democracy in its cradle, Europe. She explains that in fact, just about every democratic wave in Europe initially failed, either collapsing in upon itself or succumbing to the forces of reaction. Yet even when democratic waves failed, there were always some achievements that lasted. Even the most virulently reactionary regimes could not suppress every element of democratic progress. Panoramic in scope, Berman takes readers through two centuries of turmoil: revolution, fascism, civil war, and - -finally -- the emergence of liberal democratic Europe in the postwar era. A magisterial retelling of modern European political history, Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe not explains how democracy actually develops, but how we should interpret the current wave of illiberalism sweeping Europe and the rest of the world.
The Oxford Handbook of Historical Institutionalism
Author: Karl Orfeo Fioretos
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2016
Total Pages: 705
ISBN-13: 0199662819
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis volume offers an authoritative and accessible state-of-the-art analysis of the historical institutionalism research tradition in Political Science.
Non-Democratic Politics
Author: Xavier Márquez
Publisher: Red Globe Press
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 1137486317
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSince the nineteenth century, there has been a slow transformation in the nature of the norms that regulate political competition and the uses of state power. Monarchies whose legitimating principles appealed to divine sanction have steadily given way to republican regimes normatively grounded in appeals to 'the people.' Ideals of liberty, equality and solidarity have gained ground relative to ideals of hierarchy and dependence. Yet while in some ways the world is more democratic now than ever, new forms of non-democracy and new justifications for it have emerged. Drawing on a wide variety of examples and data from around the world, this important new text provides a global account of the history and theory of non-democratic government over the past two centuries. Grounded in the most recent social science research, it shows how non-democratic regimes have ruled through many different institutions, from parties to armies to dynastic families, and examines the economic and social performance of these different types of non-democracy, as well as the development of justifications for them. It discusses how over the last century personal dictatorships and totalitarian regimes have given way to hybrid regimes combining electoral competition with various restrictions on the ability of parties and other social groups to effectively compete for control of the state. The book assesses the processes through which non-democratic regimes change, and sometimes democratize, from cultural change and economic development to collective action and revolution. Offering a cutting-edge analysis of the complex issue of non-democratic politics, this is the perfect introduction for students with an interest in how authoritarianism exerts itself in the modern age.
Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy
Author: Michael Albertus
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2018-01-25
Total Pages: 326
ISBN-13: 110819642X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book argues that - in terms of institutional design, the allocation of power and privilege, and the lived experiences of citizens - democracy often does not restart the political game after displacing authoritarianism. Democratic institutions are frequently designed by the outgoing authoritarian regime to shield incumbent elites from the rule of law and give them an unfair advantage over politics and the economy after democratization. Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy systematically documents and analyzes the constitutional tools that outgoing authoritarian elites use to accomplish these ends, such as electoral system design, legislative appointments, federalism, legal immunities, constitutional tribunal design, and supermajority thresholds for change. The study provides wide-ranging evidence for these claims using data that spans the globe and dates from 1800 to the present. Albertus and Menaldo also conduct detailed case studies of Chile and Sweden. In doing so, they explain why some democracies successfully overhaul their elite-biased constitutions for more egalitarian social contracts.
Ordering Power
Author: Dan Slater
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2010-08-09
Total Pages:
ISBN-13: 1139489968
DOWNLOAD EBOOKLike the postcolonial world more generally, Southeast Asia exhibits tremendous variation in state capacity and authoritarian durability. Ordering Power draws on theoretical insights dating back to Thomas Hobbes to develop a unified framework for explaining both of these political outcomes. States are especially strong and dictatorships especially durable when they have their origins in 'protection pacts': broad elite coalitions unified by shared support for heightened state power and tightened authoritarian controls as bulwarks against especially threatening and challenging types of contentious politics. These coalitions provide the elite collective action underpinning strong states, robust ruling parties, cohesive militaries, and durable authoritarian regimes - all at the same time. Comparative-historical analysis of seven Southeast Asian countries (Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Vietnam, and Thailand) reveals that subtly divergent patterns of contentious politics after World War II provide the best explanation for the dramatic divergence in Southeast Asia's contemporary states and regimes.
Twilight of Democracy
Author: Anne Applebaum
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2020-07-21
Total Pages: 166
ISBN-13: 0385545819
DOWNLOAD EBOOKNATIONAL BESTSELLER • "How did our democracy go wrong? This extraordinary document ... is Applebaum's answer." —Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny The Pulitzer Prize–winning historian explains, with electrifying clarity, why elites in democracies around the world are turning toward nationalism and authoritarianism. From the United States and Britain to continental Europe and beyond, liberal democracy is under siege, while authoritarianism is on the rise. In Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum, an award-winning historian of Soviet atrocities who was one of the first American journalists to raise an alarm about antidemocratic trends in the West, explains the lure of nationalism and autocracy. In this captivating essay, she contends that political systems with radically simple beliefs are inherently appealing, especially when they benefit the loyal to the exclusion of everyone else. Elegantly written and urgently argued, Twilight of Democracy is a brilliant dissection of a world-shaking shift and a stirring glimpse of the road back to democratic values.
