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THE RISE OF COMPETITIVE AUTHORITARIANISM
Samson ZhangSteven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way (Journal of Democracy, 2002)
Summary
Levitsky and Way define the competitive authoritarian regime, where democratic institutions have some power but are abused by authoritarian leaders. Though these regimes are inherently unstable, they reflect a difficulty for fully authoritarian regimes to form (as well as full democracies) since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 due to the influence of Western liberalism.
Takeaways
Levitsky and Way use Russia as an example of a competitive authoritarian regime. Is it still?
Notes
Competitive authoritarianism: democratic rules and institutions that have real power, but are consistently violated by authoritarian rulers such that it's not a full democracy
- repression of opposition party, media, abuse of state resources
- but arenas for opposition
- elections still have some degree of uncertainty, major challengers: high political cost to suppression
- legislature either has some power to oppose authoritarian rule or serves as organizational or public platform for opposition
- judiciary has some power to oppose authoritarian rule
- media has some power to be a watchdog and inflict political toll on authoritarian leaders
- inherent instability -- rulers face choice between destroying democratic institutions or losing their own power, leading to regime crises
- but presence of these hybrid states reflects difficulty of fully authoritarian regimes to form
- after Soviet collapse, Western liberalism has strong economic and political influence
- competitive authoritarian regimes can turn authoritarian or democratic, or stay as they are
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Poli 5: Intro to Comparative Politics
Notes for Pomona class Poli 005: Intro to Comparative Politics