Transcript Intro.i.HowDangerousAreNonDemocs

WHAT MAKES A REGIME UNDEMOCRATIC?
• What are categories and ideal types?
• How many forces should hold power in a society?:
one, a handful, many? Is having anything less than power by the people
inherently bad? Are there situations where it makes sense to have non-dem?
• What separates out good governments from bad ones? Maybe the main criteria
isn’t whether they are not democratic vs. not
– The results in a countries trajectories?:Despots vs. Modernizing tyrants and
party states
– The degree to which negative and/or positive rights are protected?
– The means of exercising power? Violence versus its alternatives
– Whether rules are arbitrary or not (equal citizenship)
– Whether government serves itself or everyone
• Do authoritarian regimes ever hold elections (usually, these days) and/or protect
rights (sometimes) and liberties (no)?
• What are the main types of authoritarian regimes?:
Autocracies (inc., monarchies), oligarchies, competitive oligarchies (inc., single
party states), bureaucratic authoritarianism (inc. some juntas)
WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE LIVE WITH
UNDER AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES?
• Why is author. the most common type of regime throughout
history? What does democracy need to flourish?
• Are there situations in which authoritarian regimes are
justified or even best?: External security, ethnic divisions,
modernizing tyrants, tutelage, & strategic resource control
• Can these regimes be “legitimate” and even popular?
• How do natural resources (a curse?) impact good and bad
rulers? (state capitalism vs. lootocracies)
• How likely are these regimes to persist over time without
people revolting? Evidence from Russia and China
• How have authoritarian regimes evolved in recent decades
to survive at least in the short-term (Andreas Schedler)?
Legislatures, judiciary, elections, civil society, media
WHAT ARE TOTALITARIAN REGIMES?
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Why is totalitarianism a 20th C phenomenon? G. Orwell
Why so much violence by everyday people?
What kind of ideology? Scapegoats & utopias
Why cults of leadership?
Why propaganda and mass mobilization?
Why politicization of the private sphere?
How is a revolution institutionalized? Cells, purges, secret
police, schools, & parties
• Why do these regimes tend to be so short-lived?
• Why are they less likely to evolve into democratic regimes
than authoritarian governments?
SO WHAT IS THE IRANIAN REGIME?
• In what sense was it initially totalitarian and why was its
totalitarian period “still born”?
• What is “factionalized” authoritarianism, and what does it
look like in Iran? What does it look like in Mexico? Is there
such a thing in Russia?
• Is there any way in which Iran is democratic? Does this
description still fit today (a decade after this article was
published)