Week 7 - state repression & institutions Flashcards
(16 cards)
What is state repression according to Davenport 200/?
The actual or threatened use of physical sanctions against an individual or organization, within the territorial jurisdiction of the state, for the purpose of imposing a cost on the target as well as deterring specific activities and/or beliefs perceived to be challenging to government personnel, practices or institutions
Classic interpretation of repression?
- Traditionally excludes broader understandings of violence (structural, economic, social)
- Focus on (actual or threatened) physical sanctions of personal integrity and political rights.
- Right to personal integrity- right to life, liberty, security of person
o freedom from torture, disappearance, (political) imprisonment, extrajudicial killing, mass killing/genocide - Civil and Political rights: freedom of speech, assembly, association, etc
Why measure state repression?
- Measurement of state abuse of violence as a way to support truth, accountability, reconciliation, and memory
- Development of tools, methods, and practices to standardize measurement of repression
- Standardization as basis for understanding causes, patterns, and consequences of repression
Explain the measures for state repression
- Events-based measures
o Collecting information on repressive events
o Multitude of sources, e.g.:
= Newspapers
= Non-governmental groups (human rights, religious, unions, etc)
= Social Media - Standards-based measures
o Aggregate (more) widely comparable measure of repression
o Restricted number of sources (to allow for comparability)
= Standardized NGO country reports
= Yearly government reports - (Survey-based measures
What are the political terror scale levels?
- Countries under a secure rule of law, people are not imprisoned for their view, and torture is rare or exceptional. Political murders are extremely rare.
- There is a limited amount of imprisonment for nonviolent political activity. However, few persons are affected, torture and beatings are exceptional. Political murder is rare.
- There is extensive political imprisonment, or a recent history of such imprisonment. Execution or other political murders and brutality may be common. Unlimited detention, with or without a trial, for political views is accepted.
- Civil and political rights violations have expanded to large numbers of the population. Murders, disappearances, and torture are a common part of life. In spite of its generality, on this level terror affects those who interest themselves in politics or ideas.
- Terror has expanded to the whole population. The leaders of these societies place no limits on the means or thoroughness with which they pursue personal or ideological goals.
What is coercive responsiveness?
- Consistent finding (across time and countries): Dissent ⇒ ↑ Repression
- Core task of repression: increase the cost of collective action
- What about Repression ⇒ Dissent?
o Can either coerce population into loyalty, or incite opposition
o Highly context dependent (Rozenas & Zhukov, 2019)
o Depends on the type of repression (preventive vs. reactive) (Ritter & Conrad, 2016)
o Depends on target of repression.
Why do states respond coercively? (Poe 2004)
- Governments are motivated to remain in power
- To do so, they perceive their own Strength (S) in the domestic political domain, as well as their perception that a domestic Threat (T) will overthrow their power.
- Governments will be motivated (or willing) to take action to increase S and decrease T in the following situations
o When they perceive (St < Tt)
o When they perceive [St/Tt] < [St0/Tt0] - Repression is one tool that can be used by governments to respond to either of these situations.
What are entry points for understanding (and mitigating) repression (Poe 2004)
- Factors that influence the perceptions of Threat
- Factors that influence the perceptions of Strength
- Factors that influence the alternatives to repression that are available
- Factors that influence the choice among alternatives to repression
What is domestic democratic peace?
Strong theoretical and empirical support that (fully) democratic political institutions decrease repressive behaviour by states. … Why?
Understanding the role of institutions
- Domestic democratic peace
- Democracies versus autocracies
- Repression in autocracies
- Repression in democracies
Explain Democratic institutions and repression (Domestic democratic peace)
Fully democratic regimes:
- Increase the costs of using repression ⇒ electorally costly
- Democratic values (toleration, communication, deliberation) ⇒ contrast to repression
- Alternative mechanisms of participation for citizens (beyond e.g. violent dissent)
- Alternative mechanisms of control and oversight through institutionalized participation
Explain Democracies vs. autocracies with regard to repression
Assumptions
- Leaders care about staying in office
- Staying in office requires a winning coalition W
- Winning coalition is a share of the selectorate S
- Selectorate is a subset of all citizens N
Democracy
- S=N
- W= 0.5S
Autocracy
- S<N
- W very small
In a nutshell
1. All leaders desire to stay in office.
2. Leaders with large winning coalitions (democracies) more interested in broad support of the population.
3. Leaders with small winning coalitions (autocracies) more interested in keeping small circle of elites happy, and the rest quiet.
Explain Repression in autocracies
- Autocracies use more repression than democracies
- But not all autocracies are alike!
- Key explanation (again!): Types of institutions
Explain Co-optation vs. repression (Frantz & Kendall-Taylor 2014)
- Co-optation as alternative choice to repression
- Intentional extension of benefits in exchange for loyalty
o Patronage
o Institutions that draw rivals into the regime apparatus (e.g. through parties and legislatures) - Institutional co-optation helps ‘keep the enemies close’, anticipate and correctly estimate threats ⇒ use preventive, targeted repression
- Institutional co-optation increases repression of physical integrity rights
- Institutional co-optation decreases repression of civil liberties (freedom of expression, association, etc.)
Explain Repression in Democracies
- Targets: (perceived) outsiders and minorities are most at risk (Conrad, Hill and Moore, 2018; Davenport, 2012)
- Methods: Hard to detect methods (hidden, ‘clean’), less visible victims (Rejali, 2007, Daxecker and Hess, 2013, Carey and Gohdes, 2021)
- Accountability: Blame-shifting (Mitchell, 2012)
- Delegation: Outsourcing repression to militias, private security, etc. (Carey et al., 2015, Mitchell et al., 2014) ⇒ Plausible Deniability
Explain repression in the digital age? What can state actors do?
Digital Tech: Who benefit?
Information and Communication Technologies….
- … allow civil society to reach constituents, build coalitions and coordinate humanitarian and relief efforts.
- … provide new online spaces for marginalized groups.
- … help coordinate both violent and non-violent protest and resistance.
State actors can:
- …criminalize non-state content.
- … weaponize digital infrastructure through monitoring data and cutting access to (parts) of the online sphere.
- …manipulate the information space.
Wrap up repression
- To understand state repression, we have to understand a state’s perception of its own strength and domestic threats, as well as other response choices
- Institutions are a core factor that shape occurrence and manifestation of repression
- Democracies use less repression than autocracies, but also use certain types of repression
