The Evolution of Legitimation, Cooptation and Repression in Authoritarian Regimes: Singapore and Ethiopia in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Following a dramatic shift in the geopolitical environment after the Cold War, the world ushered in a new age of democratic expansion. This third wave of democratization, described by Samuel P. Huntington as a global trend that saw countries undergo some form of democratic transition, heralded new democratic governments in regions such as Eastern Europe, hitherto stalwart bastions of socialist dictatorship. But were these political developments a wave, or just a ripple? Did this period truly mark a global and decisive shift toward more egalitarian and democratic governance? Critics suggest that it does not, pointing to the survival of authoritarian regimes in other regions of the world, such as in South-East Asia and Africa. For these regimes, the twin pressures of democratization and globalization may have necessitated a choice between maintenance of retrograde dictatorship and democratic transition, but their desire to remain in power only provided sufficient incentive to disguise authoritarianism behind the facade of democracy. This study thus seeks to decipher the design and dynamics of contemporary authoritarian regimes as contributing factors for their longevity. It delves into the changing nature of the measures of legitimation, co-optation, and repression that the regimes in Singapore and Ethiopia have adopted to placate their critics, citizens, and challengers. It seeks not just to describe why these autocratic states repress, but crucially, also how they do so against the backdrop of calls for democratization.