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The Authoritarian Interlude: Democracy, Values and the Politics of Hubris
by Peter MardenWhat do we value as a political virtue? What are the core values of democracy in the modern era? What is a democratic culture and can it coexist with a predatory capitalist corporatism? Is democracy just about human rights? What is the nature of public dissent? These are some of the questions posed in this book as Peter Marden extends debates on democracy by critically examining the key role of values often associated with neo-liberalism and the traditions of thought concerning public conceptions of democratic life. Within the volume various normative arguments from prominent political theorists are addressed, particularly those associated with deliberative approaches to the study of contemporary democracy. Marden is motivated by an interest in the language and spirit of democracy as a values-based culture not solely driven by technocratic devices but a genuine reframing of the values necessary to underpin any peculiar democratic practice. Throughout the book examples are taken from the Australian, United Kingdom, and United States democratic experience post-9/11 to explore the dimensions of democratic culture, the nuanced tensions between the individual as an autonomous reflective subject and conceptions of the common good.
The Authoritarian International: Tracing How Authoritarian Regimes Learn in the Post-Soviet Space
by Stephen G. HallStephen Hall argues that democracies can preserve their norms and values from increasing attacks and backsliding by better understanding how authoritarian regimes learn. He focuses on the post-Soviet region, investigating two established authoritarian regimes, Belarus and Russia, and two hybrid-regimes, Moldova and Ukraine, with the aim of explaining the concept of authoritarian learning and revealing the practices that are developed and the sources of that learning. Hall finds clear signs of collaboration between countries in developing best survival practices between authoritarian-minded elites, and demonstrates that learning does not just occur between states, rather it can happen at the intra-state level, with elites learning lessons from previous regimes in their own countries. He highlights the horizontal nature of this learning, with authoritarian-minded elites developing methods from a range of sources to ascertain the best practices for survival. Post-Soviet regional organisations are crucial for the development and sharing of these survival practices as they provide 'learning rooms' and training exercises.
Authoritarian Landscapes: Popular Mobilization and the Institutional Sources of Resilience in Nondemocracies
by Steve HessThe turbulent year of 2011 has brought the appearance of mass popular unrest and the collapse of long lived autocratic regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and possibly Syria. The sudden and unanticipated fall of these regimes - often thought of as exemplars of authoritarian resilience - has brought much of the conventional wisdom on the durability and vulnerability of nondemocratic regimes into question. This book seeks to advance the existing literature by treating the autocratic state not as a unitary actor characterized by strength or weakness but rather as a structure or terrain that can alternatively inhibit or facilitate the appearance of national level forms of protests. In the mode of the Arab Spring, the color revolutions of the former Soviet Union, and the people power movement of the Philippines, such movements overcome the daunting impediments presented by autocrats, appeal to likeminded counterparts across society, and overwhelm the ability of regimes to maintain order. Conversely, in other settings, such as contemporary China, decentralized state structures provide an inhospitable environment for national-level protest, leading collective actors to opt for more local and parochial forms of contention. This outcome produces paradoxical situations, such as in the PRC, where protests are frequent but national-level mobilization and coordination is absent.
Authoritarian Laughter: Political Humor and Soviet Dystopia in Lithuania
by Neringa KlumbytėAuthoritarian Laughter explores the political history of the satire and humor magazine Broom published in Soviet Lithuania. Artists, writers, and journalists were required to create state-sponsored Soviet humor and serve the Communist Party after Lithuania was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940. Neringa Klumbytė investigates official attempts to shape citizens into Soviet subjects and engage them through a culture of popular humor. Broom was multidirectional—it both facilitated Communist Party agendas and expressed opposition toward the Soviet regime. Official satire and humor in Soviet Lithuania increasingly created dystopian visions of Soviet modernity and were a forum for critical ideas and nationalist sentiments that were mobilized in anti-Soviet revolutionary laughter in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Authoritarian Laughter illustrates that Soviet Western peripheries were unstable and their governance was limited. While authoritarian states engage in a statecraft of the everyday and seek to engineer intimate lives, authoritarianism is defied not only in revolutions, but in the many stories people tell each other about themselves in jokes, cartoons, and satires.
Authoritarian Legality in Asia: Formation, Development and Transition
by Weitseng Chen Hualing FuA cluster of Asian states are well-known for their authoritarian legality while having been able to achieve remarkable economic growth. Why would an authoritarian regime seek or tolerate a significant degree of legality and how has such type of legality been made possible in Asia? Would a transition towards a liberal, democratic system eventually take place and, if so, what kind of post-transition struggles are likely to be experienced? This book compares the past and current experiences of China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and Vietnam and offers a comparative framework for readers to conduct a theoretical dialogue with the orthodox conception of liberal democracy and the rule of law.
Authoritarian Legality in China: Law, Workers, and the State
by Mary E. GallagherCan authoritarian regimes use democratic institutions to strengthen and solidify their rule? The Chinese government has legislated some of the most protective workplace laws in the world and opened up the judicial system to adjudicate workplace conflict, emboldening China's workers to use these laws. This book examines these patterns of legal mobilization, showing which workers are likely to avail themselves of these new protections and find them effective. Gallagher finds that workers with high levels of education are far more likely to claim these new rights and be satisfied with the results. However, many others, left disappointed with the large gap between law on the books and law in reality, reject the courtroom for the streets. Using workers' narratives, surveys, and case studies of protests, Gallagher argues that China's half-hearted attempt at rule of law construction undermines the stability of authoritarian rule. New workplace rights fuel workers' rising expectations, but a dysfunctional legal system drives many workers to more extreme options, including strikes, demonstrations and violence.
Authoritarian Modernism in East Asia (Security, Development and Human Rights in East Asia)
by Mark R. ThompsonFollowing Barrington Moore Jr., this book raises doubts about modernization theory’s claim that an advanced economy with extensive social differentiation is incompatible with authoritarian rule. Authoritarian modernism in East Asia (Northeast and Southeast Asia) has been characterized by economically reformist but politically conservative leaders who have attempted to learn the “secrets” of authoritarian rule in modern society. They demobilize civil society while endeavoring to establish an “ethical” form of rule and claim reactionary culturalist legitimation. With China, East Asia is home to the most important country in the world today that is rapidly modernizing while attempting to remain authoritarian.
Authoritarian Modernization in Russia: Ideas, Institutions, and Policies (Studies in Contemporary Russia)
by Vladimir Gel'ManPost-Communist Russia is an instance of the phenomenon of authoritarian modernization project, which is perceived as a set of policies intended to achieve a high level of economic development, while political freedoms remain beyond the current modernization agenda or are postponed to a distant future. Why did Russia (unlike many countries of post-Communist Europe) pursue authoritarian modernization after the Soviet collapse? What is the ideational agenda behind this project and why does it dominate Russia’s post-Communist political landscape? What are the mechanisms of political governance, which maintain this project and how have they adopted and absorbed various democratic institutions and practices? Why has this project brought such diverse results in various policy arenas, and why have the consequences of certain policies become so controversial? Why, despite so many controversies, shortcomings and flaws, has this project remained attractive in the eyes of a large proportion of the Russian elite and ordinary citizens? This volume intended to place some of these questions on the research agenda and propose several answers, encouraging further discussions about the logic and mechanisms of the authoritarian modernization project in post-Communist Russia and its effects on Russia’s politics, economy, and society.
The Authoritarian Moment: How the Left Weaponized America's Institutions Against Dissent
by Ben ShapiroNew York Times BestsellerHow far are Americans willing to go to force each other to fall in line?According to the establishment media, the intelligentsia, and our political chattering class, the greatest threat to American freedom lies in right-wing authoritarianism. We’ve heard that some 75 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump represent the rise of American fascism; that conservatives have allowed authoritarianism to bloom in their midst, creating a grave danger for the republic.But what if the true authoritarian threat to America doesn’t come from the political right, but from the supposedly anti-fascist left?There are certainly totalitarians on the political right. But statistically, they represent a fringe movement with little institutional clout. The authoritarian left, meanwhile, is ascendant in nearly every area of American life. A small number of leftists—college-educated, coastal, and uncompromising—have not just taken over the Democratic Party but our corporations, our universities, our scientific establishment, our cultural institutions. And they have used their newfound power to silence their opposition.The authoritarian Left is aggressively insistent that everyone must conform to its values, demanding submission and conformity. The dogmatic Left is obsessed with putting people in categories and changing human nature. Everyone who opposes it must be destroyed.Ben Shapiro looks at everything from pop culture to the Frankfurt school, social media to the Founding Fathers, to explain the origins of our turn to tyranny, and why so many seem blind to it.More than a catalog of bad actors and intemperate acts,The Authoritarian Moment lays bare the intolerance and rigidity creeping into all American ideology – and prescribes the solution to ending the authoritarianism that threatens our future.
Authoritarian Neoliberalism and Resistance in Turkey: Construction, Consolidation, and Contestation
by İmren Borsuk Pınar Dinç Sinem Kavak Pınar SayanThis book offers new clarity on three important political concepts: authoritarianism, neoliberalism, and resistance. While debates on authoritarian resurgence have been limited to the examination of political factors (e.g., polarisation, conflict) until recently, the rising literature on ‘authoritarian neoliberalism’ highlights how the neoliberal restructuring of political economy bolsters the authoritarian tendencies of elected governments both in the Global South and the Global North. This book will be an invaluable resource not only to scholars of Turkey and the Middle East but also to researchers into authoritarianism and neoliberalism around the world. Chapters 2 and 10 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers
by John W. Dean Bob AltemeyerOne of American political history's most famous figures, who knows what it's like to stand up to an authoritarian White House, joins with an expert on authoritarianism to take a piercing look at how someone like Donald Trump and his followers achieved power—and what they might do to keep it ... John Dean, of Watergate fame, knows what it's like to work for a strong-willed, vindictive president. But even Richard Nixon, says Dean, didn't have the raw lust for power that Donald Trump has. Nor the lack of skill. Nor the deep, willful ignorance of our democracy. So how did such a person achieve power? Suspecting the answer lay in understanding Trump's base constituency, Dean has partnered with Bob Altemeyer, a professor of psychology whose expertise is the study of authoritarianism, to see why Trump's base is so faithful to him, no matter what he does. Why do evangelical Christians support him, for example, despite his well-documented sexual predations? Why do so many working class Americans support him, despite the way he works against their interests? Why do facts and logic not change their minds? By drawing on some psychological diagnostic tools (such as the "Power Mad Scale" and the "Con Man Scale") and looking at other historic authoritarians and their movements, Dean and Altemeyer offer not only an eye-opening revelation of how Trump and his followers have gotten where they have . . . but a road map to where they may go next.
Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa
by Rachel Beatty RiedlWhy have seemingly similar African countries developed very different forms of democratic party systems? Despite virtually ubiquitous conditions that are assumed to be challenging to democracy - low levels of economic development, high ethnic heterogeneity, and weak state capacity - nearly two dozen African countries have maintained democratic competition since the early 1990s. Yet the forms of party system competition vary greatly: from highly stable, nationally organized, well-institutionalized party systems to incredibly volatile, particularistic parties in systems with low institutionalization. To explain their divergent development, Rachel Beatty Riedl points to earlier authoritarian strategies to consolidate support and maintain power. The initial stages of democratic opening provides an opportunity for authoritarian incumbents to attempt to shape the rules of the new multiparty system in their own interests, but their power to do so depends on the extent of local support built up over time. The particular form of the party system that emerges from the democratic transition is sustained over time through isomorphic competitive pressures embodied in the new rules of the game, the forms of party organization and the structure of competition that shape party and voter behavior alike.
Authoritarian Party Structures and Democratic Political Setting in Turkey
by Pelin Ayan MusilConducting a comparative case study among four parties in the Turkish political system, this study shows how the variance in interest configurations and the power resources of local party activists constitute these changing patterns.
The Authoritarian Personality
by Theodor Adorno Else Frenkel-Brunswik Daniel J. Levinson R. Nevitt SanfordA new edition of this classic study of the origins of anti-SemitismBringing together the findings of psychoanalysis and social science, this book grew out of an urgent commitment to study the origins of anti-Semitism in the aftermath of Hitler's Germany. First published in 1951, it was greeted as a monumental study blazing new trails in the investigation of prejudice. As offshoots of ethnocentrism, anti-semitism and fascism cast new and dark shadows on the world, the topic again demands study and social action. "The Authoritarian Personality" remains an important document for our time.
Authoritarian Police in Democracy: Contested Security in Latin America (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)
by Yanilda María GonzálezIn countries around the world, from the United States to the Philippines to Chile, police forces are at the center of social unrest and debates about democracy and rule of law. This book examines the persistence of authoritarian policing in Latin America to explain why police violence and malfeasance remain pervasive decades after democratization. It also examines the conditions under which reform can occur. Drawing on rich comparative analysis and evidence from Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia, the book opens up the 'black box' of police bureaucracies to show how police forces exert power and cultivate relationships with politicians, as well as how social inequality impedes change. González shows that authoritarian policing persists not in spite of democracy but in part because of democratic processes and public demand. When societal preferences over the distribution of security and coercion are fragmented along existing social cleavages, politicians possess few incentives to enact reform.
Authoritarian Populism and Bovine Political Economy in Modi’s India (Routledge Studies in South Asian Politics)
by Jostein Jakobsen Kenneth Bo NielsenAuthoritarian Populism and Bovine Political Economy in Modi’s India analyses how the twin forces of Hindu nationalism and neoliberalism unfold in India’s bovine economy, revealing their often-devastating material and economic impact on the country’s poor.This book is a rare, in-depth study of India’s bovine economy under Narendra Modi’s authoritarian populism. This is an economy that throws up a central paradox: On the one hand, an entrenched and aggressive Hindu nationalist politics is engaged in violently protecting the cow, disciplining those who do not sufficiently respect and revere it; on the other hand, India houses and continuously promotes one of the world’s largest corporate-controlled beef export economies that depends on the slaughter of millions of bovines every year. The book offers an original analysis of this scenario to show how Modi’s authoritarian populist regime has worked to reconcile the two by simultaneously promoting a virulent Hindu nationalism that seeks to turn India into a Hindu state, while also pushing neoliberal economic policies favouring corporate capital and elite class interests within and beyond the bovine economy.The book brings out the adverse impacts of these political-economic processes on the lives and livelihoods of millions of poor Indians in countryside and city. In addition, it identifies emerging weaknesses in Modi’s authoritarian populism, highlighting the potential for progressive counter-mobilisation. It will be of interest to scholars in the fields of development studies, South Asia studies, critical agrarian studies, as well as scholars with a general interest in political economy, contemporary authoritarian populism, and social movements.
Authoritarian Populism and Liberal Democracy
by David Sanders Ivor CreweThis edited volume offers new insights into the populist wave that is affecting democratic politics in a large number of countries. The authoritarian populist turn that has developed in the US and various European countries in recent years both reflects and exacerbates the polarization of public opinion that increasingly characterizes democratic politics. The book seeks to explain how and why authoritarian populist opinion has developed and been mobilised in democratic countries. It also explores the implications of this growth in authoritarian, anti-immigrant sentiment for the operation of democratic politics in the future. It concludes that liberals may need to abandon their big-hearted internationalist instinct for open and unmanaged national borders and tacit indifference to illegal immigration. They should instead fashion a distinctively liberal position on immigration based on the socially progressive traditions of planning, public services, community cohesion and worker protection against exploitation. To do otherwise would be to provide the forces of illiberal authoritarianism with an opportunity to advance unparalleled since the 1930s and to destroy the extraordinary post-war achievements of the liberal democratic order.
Authoritarian Power And State Formation In Ba`thist Syria: Army, Party, And Peasant
by Raymond A HinnebuschThe social and economic forces that worked together to bring the Ba'thist party to power in 1963: the failure of traditional and liberal leadership, an agrarian crisis, the development of party ideology, the politicization of the army and rural mobilization - are examined in this study. Dr Hinnebusch aims to show how the Ba'th's road to power shaped its ideology and the character of its rule. Attention is then given to the pillars of state power - the army, political organizations and the peasantry. The author concludes that the regime has pursued a dual strategy for maintaining power - placing kin and clientelist networks at the levers of coercive power and building structures based on the mass incorporation of the rural population.
Authoritarian Powers: Russia and China Compared (Routledge Europe-Asia Studies)
by Authoritarian Powers: Russia and China ComparedThe statistics detailing the socioeconomic growth of Russia and China are impressive. On some projections, China will be the world’s largest economy by 2050, and Russia will be the sixth largest. Yet despite this impressive record of economic growth, a striking feature of both countries is the inegalitarian nature of their development – notwithstanding the (post)communist legacy. On most conventional measures, the two countries are now among the most unequal in the world, and the level of inequality has increased significantly since the 1990s. What effect does this endemic economic inequality have on political stability? From Aristotle onwards, observers have concluded that the greater the inequality within a society, the greater the likelihood of instability. This book addresses the relationship between economic inequality and political stability in Russia and China. Several chapters examine how economic performance has driven institutional reform, while others evaluate long term trends in public opinion to see how economic change has affected the public’s views of politics. The conclusion is that both regimes have proved adept at adapting to rising inequality by managing the policy agenda, guiding public opinion and co-opting or repressing political opposition. The chapters in this book originally published as a special issue in Europe-Asia Studies.
Authoritarian Practices and Humanitarian Negotiations (Routledge Humanitarian Studies)
by Andrew J CunninghamThis book examines authoritarian practices in relation to humanitarian negotiations. Utilising a wide variety of perspectives and examining a range of contexts, the book considers how humanitarians assess and engage with authoritarian practices and negotiate access to populations in danger. Chapters provide insights at the macro, meso, and micro levels through case studies on the international and domestic legal and political framing of humanitarian contexts (Xinjiang, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Russia, and Syria), as well as the actual practice of negotiating with authoritarian regimes (Ethiopia). A theoretical grounding is provided through chapters elaborating on the ethics and trust-building dimensions of humanitarian negotiations, and an overview chapter provides a theoretical framework through which to analyse humanitarian negotiations against the backdrop of different types of authoritarian practices. This book provides a wide-ranging view which broadens the frame of reference when considering how humanitarians view and engage with authoritarian practices. The objective is to both put these contexts into conceptual order and provide a firm theoretical basis for understanding the politics of humanitarian negotiations in such difficult contexts. This book is useful for those studying international politics and humanitarian studies, as well as for practitioners seeking to better systematise their humanitarian negotiations.
Authoritarian Practices and Humanitarian Negotiations (Routledge Humanitarian Studies)
by Andrew J CunninghamThis book examines authoritarian practices in relation to humanitarian negotiations. Utilising a wide variety of perspectives and examining a range of contexts, the book considers how humanitarians assess and engage with authoritarian practices and negotiate access to populations in danger.Chapters provide insights at the macro, meso, and micro levels through case studies on the international and domestic legal and political framing of humanitarian contexts (Xinjiang, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Russia, and Syria), as well as the actual practice of negotiating with authoritarian regimes (Ethiopia). A theoretical grounding is provided through chapters elaborating on the ethics and trust-building dimensions of humanitarian negotiations, and an overview chapter provides a theoretical framework through which to analyse humanitarian negotiations against the backdrop of different types of authoritarian practices.This book provides a wide-ranging view which broadens the frame of reference when considering how humanitarians view and engage with authoritarian practices. The objective is to both put these contexts into conceptual order and provide a firm theoretical basis for understanding the politics of humanitarian negotiations in such difficult contexts. This book is useful for those studying international politics and humanitarian studies, as well as for practitioners seeking to better systematise their humanitarian negotiations.
The Authoritarian Public Sphere: Legitimation and Autocratic Power in North Korea, Burma, and China (Routledge Studies on Comparative Asian Politics)
by Alexander DukalskisAuthoritarian regimes craft and disseminate reasons, stories, and explanations for why they are entitled to rule. To shield those legitimating messages from criticism, authoritarian regimes also censor information that they find threatening. While committed opponents of the regime may be violently repressed, this book is about how the authoritarian state keeps the majority of its people quiescent by manipulating the ways in which they talk and think about political processes, the authorities, and political alternatives. Using North Korea, Burma (Myanmar) and China as case studies, this book explains how the authoritarian public sphere shapes political discourse in each context. It also examines three domains of potential subversion of legitimating messages: the shadow markets of North Korea, networks of independent journalists in Burma, and the online sphere in China. In addition to making a theoretical contribution to the study of authoritarianism, the book draws upon unique empirical data from fieldwork conducted in the region, including interviews with North Korean defectors in South Korea, Burmese exiles in Thailand, and Burmese in Myanmar who stayed in the country during the military government. When analyzed alongside state-produced media, speeches, and legislation, the material provides a rich understanding of how autocratic legitimation influences everyday discussions about politics in the authoritarian public sphere. Explaining how autocracies manipulate the ways in which their citizens talk and think about politics, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian politics, comparative politics and authoritarian regimes.
Authoritarian Rule of Law
by Jothie RajahScholars have generally assumed that authoritarianism and rule of law are mutually incompatible. Convinced that free markets and rule of law must tip authoritarian societies in a liberal direction, nearly all studies of law and contemporary politics have neglected that improbable coupling: authoritarian rule of law. Through a focus on Singapore, this book presents an analysis of authoritarian legalism. It shows how prosperity, public discourse, and a rigorous observance of legal procedure have enabled a reconfigured rule of law such that liberal form encases illiberal content. Institutions and process at the bedrock of rule of law and liberal democracy become tools to constrain dissent while augmenting discretionary political power - even as the national and international legitimacy of the state is secured. With China seeing lessons to be learned in Singapore, as do any number of regimes looking to replicate Singapore's pairing of prosperity and social control, this book offers a valuable and original contribution to understanding the complexities of law, language, and legitimacy in our time.
Authoritarian Socialism in America: Edward Bellamy and the Nationalist Movement
by Arthur LipowIn Authoritarian Socialism Arthur Lipow raises important issues about the nature of democracy and defines the intellectual roots of the authoritarian side of the socialist tradition in America and distinguishes it from democratic socialism. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.
Authoritarian States (Oxford IB Diploma Programme)
by Brian Gray Mariam Habibi Sanjay Perera Roger Fortune Verity AylwardDrive critical, engaged learning and advanced skills development. Enabling comprehensive, rounded understanding, the student-centred approach actively develops the sophisticated skills key to performance in Paper 2. Developed directly with the IB for the 2015 syllabus, this Course Book fully supports the new comparative approach to learning.