5.7: Student Resources

Key Terms/Glossary

• Clientelism - system of exchange in which political elites obtain the political loyalty of clients by distributing resources to clients.
• Corruption - misuse of public resources for private gain.
• Democratic backsliding - when a democracy degrades and becomes more illiberal, authoritarian or autocratic.
• Hybrid regime - non-democratic form of governance that exhibits characteristics of different types of non-democracies.
• Illiberal regime - non-democratic form of governance that presents a façade of liberal institutions.
• Military rule - non-democratic rule by a country’s military elites.
• Monarchy - non-democratic rule by a single individual, with legitimacy typically based in tradition and/or divine right.
• Non-democracy - regimes which deny citizens meaningful institutional channels for making choices about their collective well-being.
• Oligarchy - non-democratic rule by a political elite with control over national wealth and resources.
• Paramilitary - refers to state-affiliated groups with access to military tools and training, usually employed to carry out violence on behalf of the state.
• Patronage networks - refers to social relations that involve the exchange of resources in exchange for loyalty.
• Personalist rule - non-democratic rule by a single individual, with legitimacy typically based in charisma and/or other political authority such as a ruling ideology or tradition.
• Political accountability - institutional channels for holding political leaders responsible for their decisions and actions.
• Political competition - presence of multiple options in political life, for example more than one political party, candidate for office, or policy position.
• Propaganda - biased information meant to convince an audience of a particular perspective or narrative.
• Sharp power - efforts by one country to use information war and diplomatic tactics to undermine the institutions of a target country, often a democracy.
• Single-party rule - non-democratic rule by a political party.
• Theocracy - non-democratic rule by elites who are legitimated by sacred texts.
• Totalitarian regime - non-democratic rule that seeks total control over society by a ruler or political elites.
• Typology - descriptive means to divide a category into sub-categories based on underlying characteristics of items in the category.

Summary

Section 5.1: What are non-democracies?

Non-democracies comprise a diverse array of countries. Commonalities across these countries include limited to no accountability for political elites and limited to no competition for public office. All non-democracies also limit the freedoms of citizens in significant ways.

Section 5.2: Strategies for staying in power

Non-democratic leaders draw from a variety of strategies to remain in power. “Carrots” include the creation of institutions to co-opt opposition and distribute resources via patronage networks or broad-based clientelism. “Sticks” involve surveilling and terrorizing populations through domestic security bureaucracies and paramilitaries. Powerful propaganda bureaus control ideas and discourse. Promotion of non-democratic cultural traditions or ideological controls also serve to legitimize the regime and delineate permissible activity in society.

Section 5.3: Varieties of non-democracy

Non-democracies are a diverse category of regimes. Many scholars have sought to identify patterns across non-democracies by devising qualitative typologies that capture common characteristics across specific cases. New types of non-democracy have been identified over time. Some common types of non-democracy include theocracy, personalist rule and monarchy, single-party rule and oligarchy, military rule, illiberal regime, and hybrid regime.

Section 5.4: Democratic backsliding

Democratic backsliding is the process of a democracy becoming more illiberal and autocratic. This phenomenon has been observed among modern democracies from the nineteenth century through the present. There are many factors which can contribute to democratic backsliding. These may be institutional, cultural, and international in nature.

Section 5.5: Comparative case study - From Czarist Russia to the Soviet Union and after

Russia from the seventeenth century to the present has experienced several types of non-democratic rule. Monarchical, or czarist rule existed until the twentieth century, when revolution led to single-party rule under the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, only to usher in a period of illiberal rule.

Review Questions

Please select the most appropriate answer for each of the following questions.

1. Which of the following are characteristics of non-democracies?
   1. Public officials are subject to limited or no accountability for their actions
   2. Limited to no competition for public office
   3. Limited to non-existent freedoms for citizens
   4. All of the above
2. Which of the following type of non-democracy is characterized by political leadership that all belongs to the same political party?
   1. Military rule
   2. Single party rule
   3. Theocracy
   4. Personalist rule
3. Non-democracies may have which of the following institutions?
   1. Free and fair elections
   2. Full civil and political liberties for citizens
   3. A cult of personality
   4. Independent judiciaries and highest leaders subject to the rule of law
4. True or false: A hybrid non-democracy may exhibit characteristics of more than one type of non-democracy, for example a combination of personalist and single-party rule.
   1. True
   2. False
5. Which of the following is NOT a kind of non-democracy observed in Russia?
   1. Single-party rule
   2. Monarchical rule
   3. Theocracy
   4. Illiberal regime

Critical Thinking Questions

1. Consider a nondemocratic country. What are some of the institutions used by leaders to stay in power – what are some of the carrots, sticks, and ideas employed by rulers?
2. Considering the nondemocracy that you chose for the previous question, What type of nondemocracy is it, and is it a single type of combination of types? Has this nondemocracy changed types over time?
3. Is there evidence of democratic backsliding in any democracies in the world today? Provide evidence to support your response.

Suggestions for Further Study

Books

• Greitens, Sheena. (2016). Dictators and their Secret Police: Coercive Institutions and State Violence (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Levitsky, Steven and Way, Lucan A. (2010). Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• Tucker, A. (2015). The Legacies of Totalitarianism: A Theoretical Framework. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781316393055

Articles

• Gandhi, Jennifer and Lust-Okar, Ellen. (2009). Elections Under Authoritarianism. Annual Review of Political Science 12: 403-422.
• Wahman, Michael, Teorell, Jan and Hadenius, Axel. (2013). "Authoritarian Regime Types Revisited: Updated Data in Comparative Perspective." Contemporary Politics 19(1): 19-34.
• Walker, C. (2018). What Is “Sharp Power”?. Journal of Democracy, 29(3), 9-23.

Datasets and websites

• Authoritarian Regimes Dataset. Comprehensive dataset on authoritarian regimes in the world from 1972 to 2014.
• Freedom House. Reports and maps on levels of political and civil rights in countries of the world.
• Polity Project. Multi-factor measure of regime types for countries of the world from 1946 to the present.

Films

• Sørensen, Signe Byrge, Köhncke, Anne, and Uwemedimo, Michael (Producers), & Oppenheimer, Joshua, Cynn, Christine, and Anonymous (Directors). (2012). The Act of Killing. Indonesia: Det Danske Filminstitut and Dogwoof Pictures.
• Wiedemann, Max and Berg, Quirin (Producers), & Henckel Von Donnersmarck, Florian (Director). (2006). The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen). Germany: Buena Vista International.