Reconceptualizing Authoritarianism (original) (raw)

Authoritarianism Reconfigured: Evolving Forms of Political Control

The Political Science of the Middle East: Theory and Research since the Arab Uprisings. Eds. Marc Lynch, Jillian Schwedler, and Sean Yom. Oxford University Press, 2022

This chapter explains how strategies and forms of authoritarian rule in the MENA have evolved greatly since the Arab uprisings. Sidestepping normative expectations for democracy and democratization, the chapter shows the primary pathways of change and persistence for many dictatorships. Many autocracies have become personalistic, bucking assumptions that rational leaders should protect themselves with hegemonic parties rather than cronies and sycophants. Most have become far more repressive since the uprisings, despite the costs of ramping up coercion. Others have catalyzed new modes of cultural domination that induce compliance through ideology. This chapter examines the shift in these different domestic practices, showing also at the external level how many regimes have also become imbricated in new networks of international support. These developments enrich prevailing theories about authoritarianism but also show how quickly regional events outpace them.

Authoritarianism Goes Global (II)

2015

The Arab uprisings of 2011 erupted in a region shaped by a decade and a half of revolutionary transformations in the world of Arab media. This revolution was driven by satellite television, local radio, semi-independent press outlets, and the Internet. 1 These new media played a vital role in the 2011 political uprisings. The new media brought critical news and opinion to a broad public, gave voice to the voiceless, built ties between activists and ordinary citizens, and linked local protests into a powerful master narrative of regional uprising. The political uprisings affected the media landscape directly, enabling the rapid launching of dozens of new independent television stations, newspapers, and websites. Within a few years, however, most of the attempted democratic transitions had failed-and the media had surely had something to do with it. Media organs that had proved crucial to the uprisings degenerated with dismaying rapidity into highly partisan platforms serving state authorities or political factions. Why did the media both drive the wave of uprisings that rocked the Arab world in 2011 and contribute to the failure of those uprisings to consolidate democratic institutions? 2 The failings of Arab media in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring are a cautionary tale. They warn us about the pitfalls that line the path to developing a plural public sphere during a transition away from authoritarian rule. In the Arab world, many of the same things about the media that facilitated the sudden emergence of mass protest movements proved harmful to the consolidation of democratic transitions. The failure to reform state media, the intense fear triggered by radical institutional uncertainty, and struggles over the identity and power structures of transitional states played out within an ecosystem of partisan and

(Re)Thinking Authoritarianism in Democracy

transcript Verlag eBooks, 2022

Antisemitism (not merely hatred of Jews) imperialism (not merely conquest), totalitarianism (not merely dictatorship) ... have demonstrated that human dignity needs a new guarantee which can be found only in a new political principle, in a new law on earth, whose validity this time must comprehend the whole of humanity while its power must remain strictly limited, rooted in and controlled by newly defined territorial entities".

Researching Authoritarianism in the Discipline of Democracy

Object. This article examines the ways social science research approaches the study of authoritarian regimes and identifies ways to engage with regimes that are both deliberately opaque and oppressive. Method. The article examines existing methodological prescriptions and practices as they pertain to the study of authoritarian regimes. These cover issues of data collection, research safety, subjective safety, and the positioning of knowledge about authoritarianism within the wider scope of social sciences. Results. The article identifies three distinct but interrelated challenges in the study of authoritarian regimes: (1) access and timing, (2) data validity and integrity, and (3) ethical issues. Conclusion. Methods commonly deployed in the study of democratic and open regimes cannot be readily deployed to the study of authoritarian ones. Greater reflexivity is needed to understand the methodological challenges inherent to the study of authoritarianism.

Democracy Misunderstood: Authoritarian Notions of Democracy around the Globe

A puzzling paradox consists in the fact that widespread support for democracy coexists frequently with the very absence of the latter. Addressing this puzzle, we show that wherever it exists, most people misunderstand democracy in authoritarian ways that defy its emancipatory core. Such authoritarian notions of democracy (henceforth: ANDs) lend legitimacy to non-democratic regimes, which explains why they persist. Testing multiple explanations of ANDs, we find that cognitive mobilization and moral liberation— which we call "enlightenment forces"—provide the most powerful antidote against ANDs, stronger even than democratic traditions. Moreover, ANDs do not represent fear-induced false preferences but are real. Finally, ANDs provide a better indicator of au-thoritarianism more broadly speaking than is true for openly expressed preferences for authoritarian rule.