Politics of Authoritarianism

The overwhelming majority of regimes in the world is authoritarian but our theoretical understanding of how authoritarian regimes persist remains less developed compared to the vast amount of knowledge we gained on democratic regimes. Moreover in recent years, many advanced democracies and semi-democratic regimes have retreated since the leading authoritarian regimes like Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia bolstered up in the global arena. We live in a historical stage whereby ‘authoritarianism goes global.’ It is time we explore the varieties and inner workings of authoritarian regimes and the way they challenge the democratic regimes today. How do authoritarian regimes persist and consolidate? What are different types of authoritarian regimes? What strategies and toolkits do the autocrats use to sustain their power? What weakens the power of the autocrats? Why is authoritarianism becoming more salient at the global level?

This course introduces the most prominent and up-to-date theoretical approaches to authoritarian regimes to shed light on such questions. It utilizes the comparative method in political science and works with a variety of case studies from Asia, Latin America, Africa, Middle East as well as Europe. Its goal is to clarify our understanding and make a theoretically informed assessment of contemporary authoritarianism and its increasing influence within domestic and international domains.