Authoritarian 2: What Autocracies Are and How They Begin Flashcards
(29 cards)
Restriction on political Parties
complete ban on parties (Pinochet Chile) vs only minor restriction (PRI Mexico)
Why is is hard to classify Autocracies?
- formal institutions may be utterly meaningless
- ideal types are neither mutually exclusive nor collectively exhaustive
- collapses and classifies based on conceptually distinct dimensions of authoritarian politics
What are the ways of analyzing Authoritarian Politcis?
- autocratic spells on the country level
- leadership tenures on the leader level
- regime durations on the regime/ruling coalition level
What are regimes?
- autocratic spells on the country level
- leadership tenures on the leader level
- regime durations on the regime/ruling coalition level
What are regimes?
they are (often informal) rules that identify the group which leaders can come and that determine leadership choice and policy decisions
What are Autocracies?
whatever is not a democracy (a residual category)
Can Autocratic institutions be taken at face value?
No. they have questionable relevance of formal institutions.
On the Polity Index, list governments from MOST democratic to MOST Autocratic
Liberal Democracy, Electoral Democracy, (transitions to Authoritarian Democracy) Electoral Autocracy, Closed Autocracy
What are the two criteria for a democracy
- free and independent legislative elections
- executive is elected in free and competitive presidential elections or indirectly by a legislature
What is a minimalist def of Autocracy/dictatorship
an independent country that fails at least one of the two criteria for democracy
What is an Autocratic Spell
an uninterrupted period of autocratic rule
What are the problems with typologies in Authoritarian Politics?
- collapses and classifies based on conceptually distinct dimensions of authoritarian politics
- ideal types are neither mutually exclusive nor collectively exhaustive
What are three types of Autocracies?
- Military Dictatorship
- Single-Party dictatorships
- personalist regimes
When do most autocratic spells begin
in a newly independent countries or after democratic breakdown
typologies vs Theoretical dimensions of Authoritarian Politics
Maybe it would be better to think in terms of dimensions of political organization in autocracies
- Military involvement in politics (pureley civillian gov vs direct military involvment)
- Restriction on political Parties
-Concentration of power
Military involvement in politics
purely civilian gov (Communist Czech) vs direct military involvement (Argentina Junta)
Concentration of power
wide power sharing (late PRI Mexico) vs Single Dictator (Stalin, Mao)
Restriction on political Parties
complete ban on parties (Pinochet Chile) vs only minor restriction (PRI Mexico)
What are the ways of analyzing Authoritarian Politcis?
- leadership tenures on the leader level
- regime durations on the regime/ruling coalition level
- autocratic spells on the country level
Why is is hard to classify Autocracies?
- formal institutions may be utterly meaningless
- ideal types are neither mutually exclusive nor collectively exhaustive
- collapses and classifies based on conceptually distinct dimensions of authoritarian politics
What are regimes?
they are (often informal) rules that identify the group which leaders can come and that determine leadership choice and policy decisions
Multiple Leaders can rule during an autocratic regime (T/F)
True. A single continuous autocratic spell can conceal multiple consecutive autocratic regimes
Autocratic spells vs regime Duration country level data issues
Country level data overestimates the stability of authoritarian regimes and may bias our understanding of how they begin and how they work
Leader Tenure vs regime Duration data issues
Leadership level data underestimates the stability of authoritarian regimes and may bias our understanding of how they begin and how they work
