Authoritarian Political System Research Articles

Chinese state media persuades a global audience that the “China model” is superior: Evidence from a 19‐country experiment

AbstractMany are skeptical of the appeal of authoritarian political systems. We argue that global audiences will embrace authoritarian models when they believe that autocracies can meet governance challenges better than democracies. We collect comprehensive data on the external messaging of the Chinese and American governments. We then conduct a randomized experiment in 19 countries across six continents exposing global citizens to real messages from the Chinese and American governments’ external media arms. We find that exposure to a representative set of Chinese messages strengthens perceptions that the Chinese Communist Party delivers growth, stability, and competent leadership. It also moves the average respondent from slightly preferring the American model to slightly preferring the Chinese model. In head‐to‐head matchups, messages from the US government are less persuasive. Our findings show how autocracies build global support by selling growth and competence, with important implications for democratic resilience.

The COVID-19 pandemic and popular confidence in democracy: evidence from China, Japan, and South Korea

ABSTRACT The past decade has witnessed worldwide backsliding on democracy, and the COVID-19 pandemic might have exacerbated this trend. This study examined popular confidence in democracy in China, Japan, and South Korea, which represented authoritarian and democratic contexts. The results show that Chinese citizens had a negative perception of the capacity of democracy to control the outbreak of COVID-19 and achieve economic growth, with an unfavourable evaluation of democracy as a better political system than alternatives. Although Japanese and South Korean citizens had more favourable evaluations of democracy than their Chinese counterparts, such positive evaluations were lukewarm in the former two countries. Confidence in the home political system in South Korea did not correlate with confidence in the capability of democracy to address economic challenges, as observed in Japan. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted ordinary people to seek a strong leader, reinforcing Chinese citizens’ beliefs in the superiority of their authoritarian political system. Simultaneously, it weakened South Korean citizens’ confidence in the effectiveness of their home political system. However, it had no discernible impact on Japanese citizens’ belief in the superiority of their political system.

The Characteristics of the Political Culture of Modern Vietnam

The article examines the complex of historical and cultural conditions which have determined the current state of Vietnam's political culture. The author uses Talcott Parsons' definition of “political culture” and analyzes its main elements in relation to Vietnam. The article presents key aspects of the formation of the political culture of Vietnam, features of the political culture of modern Vietnam, as well as views on the legitimacy of the rule of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Factors contributing to the preservation of the authoritarian political system were identified, the prospects for possible democratic transition were assessed.

Social Media and the DIY Politics in Thailand's 2023 Election

This article argues that Thailand's 2023 parliamentary election was the first election in which social media played a decisive factor in the electoral outcomes. Prior to this election, social media was an important campaign tool, but it was unclear whether it made a difference in the electoral results. Based on our original post-election survey data (n = 1,249), social media was the most important media in governing vote choice. Social media was a crucial space for activation and conversion—motivating the undecided to become partisans and converting partisan voters to shift their allegiances. Thailand's 2023 election was also marked by a rise in the personalization of political campaigning, wherein citizens felt free to decide how and what their political participation looked like, and parties that encouraged inclusive and open engagement with politics were best poised to win in the electoral arena. Drawing on social network analysis of social media data, this article demonstrates how the Move Forward Party's (MFP) loosely structured and inclusive social media campaigns allowed both their candidates and supporters to mobilize individualized large-scale collective action, in contrast to their rivals who focused on traditional top-down style campaigning. Despite the MFP's winning social media campaigning that produced electoral victories, the party was unable to come to power due to an entrenched authoritarian political system designed to maintain the power of the country's autocratic elites. The Thai case demonstrates powerfully how autocrats might lose an election due to social media, yet still manage to hang on to power through entrenched authoritarian institutions.

Local lobbying in single‐party authoritarian systems: Do institutions matter?

AbstractLobbying, and its role in the policy process, has been extensively studied in democratic states, but much less is known about similar practices in authoritarian political systems. Although a few studies have identified lobbying in China, most have focused on big businesses and national policy making, and some have argued that it is unaffected by differences in political institutions. Our paper challenges this portrayal of business lobbying in autocracies. Through a study of the lobbying activities of business associations based on documentary research and fieldwork in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin between 2011 and 2013, we show that although business associations have similar lobbying motivations to their counterparts in democracies, their specific practices are often shaped by authoritarian political institutions. While they are similar in seeking to build informal relationships with public officials, provide expertise to shape policies, and raise their profile through public relations activities and media engagement, they differ in focusing their relationship‐building efforts on helping officials with routine work, helping Communist Party organizations establish cells in businesses, and brokering between businesses and government. Rather than donating to political campaigns like their counterparts in democracies, they become legislators themselves, hire retired officials, and seek positions on advisory bodies. Rigged elections, an unreliable legal system, and restrictions on media and freedom of movement are key authoritarian institutions that shape these distinctive lobbying practices.

Can NPOs convene collaborative governance in China? —a case of addressing complex water conflicts

ABSTRACT Collaborative governance is considered to be a promising solution to solve complex public policy problems. However, in authoritarian states, the initiation and organization of collaborative governance can be challenging as it often faces political and practical constraints. In response to these challenges, some enthusiastic local governments experimented using a third party to act as convenors of collaborative governance in China. This article conducted in-depth and longitudinal analyses of the case of NPO-GZ, which was contracted as the convenor for collaborative governance to resolve a water pollution conflict between two villages. The research established some critical conditions for a professional convenor of this nature to succeed in China. This research contributes to the growing literature on the possibility of improving developing collaborative governance in an authoritarian political system.

Two Journalisms? Linear and Curvilinear Relationships Between Journalists’ Role Ideals and Degree of Democracy

ABSTRACT If there are authoritarian, transitional, and democratic political and media systems, are there associated authoritarian, transitional, and democratic role profiles for journalists? The relation between countries’ degree of democracy and the importance of journalistic role conceptions among journalists in a country is analyzed based on the World Journalism Study (Wave 2). I find that journalists in democratic political systems generally subscribe to fewer role conceptions than journalists in authoritarian political systems; Journalism-for-Democracy is more defined by what it is not (i.e., journalists reject the typical role conceptions of Journalism-for-Authoritarianism and Journalism-in-Transition) than by what it is. Journalism in transitional political systems (i.e., hybrid regimes and deficient democracies) is characterized by a specific set of role conceptions that are linked to political activism, which journalists in full democracies tend to reject. The study reassesses which role conceptions might be typical for which kind of political systems leading to revised hypotheses regarding the link between democracy and journalistic role conceptions.

Building voting coalitions in electoral authoritarian regimes: a case study of the 2020 constitutional reform in Russia

ABSTRACT Electoral authoritarian political systems have a hybrid nature, possessing very significant authoritarian features alongside elections that can produce openings for political change. The risks that elections pose to regimes are diminished if they can build winning coalitions involving voters beyond their core of loyal support. This paper considers how the construction of voter coalitions might be conceptualized in the Russian electoral authoritarian context, with reference to the case of the 2020 vote on constitutional reform, which was conducted with the primary aim of extending President Vladimir Putin’s term in office. Using data from a national survey of Russians conducted immediately after the vote, our analysis indicates that the regime’s success, even taking into account allegations of widespread fraud, was the result of its offer of additional constitutional amendments that were able to target voters beyond Putin’s core support.

E-government, political system and COVID-19 in Africa: lessons for future disruptive shocks

PurposeThis study aims to explore the role of mobile tracing applications as part of e-government services in combating the COVID-19 pandemic effects in Africa by analyzing the moderating role of sustainable development. This study also investigated the role of the political and economic systems in mitigating the negative consequences of COVID-19 and how e-government interacts in this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThis study included the COVID-19 performance index for 94 countries belonging to different regions, including 20 African countries. Multiple linear regression was used for data analysis via Stata software. The study was conducted from the start of the pandemic to March 13, 2021.FindingsThe results show that less economically and technologically developed countries with generally authoritarian political systems, including African countries, could limit the spread of the pandemic better than some democratic, economically and technologically developed countries in the first wave of the pandemic. The promotion of sustainable development goals moderates the relationship between mobile tracing applications as part of the e-government service and the fight against COVID-19.Originality/valueThis study provides insight into the role of mobile application technology as an e-governance service in mitigating the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in a context characterized by economic limitations, fragile public health infrastructure and relatively high political instability, especially in Africa. The findings shed light on some of the difficulties African countries may face in incorporating technology into their development projects.

General “Maize” as One of the Failed Managerial Experiments of N. S. Khrushchev

Goals. Based on the analysis of materials from the Soviet press, scientific publications and a number of other sources, to show the hyperactive activity of the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee N.S. Khrushchev on the widespread introduction of corn crops in the country, to reveal how ill-conceived and not calculated from a scientific point of view, managerial decisions in an authoritarian political system can lead to serious negative socio-economic and political consequences.Materials and methods. N.S. Khrushchev’s speeches at party congresses, plenums, activists and other forums, party and government resolutions concerning the party leadership of the agrarian sphere of the country were chosen as the basic materials of the work. The main method of working with sources and scientific literature is the historical approach, which is traditional for this kind of research, which allowed us to consider the dynamics of the origins of the “corn epic”, its development and historical finale. In addition, a problem-chronological approach was used, which contributed to the study of specific aspects of the activities of the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, which allowed to trace the causes of the origin and development of the campaign initiated by him, but also to draw historical lessons from its deplorable results.Results. One of the negative results of the policy of “universal maize” imposed by N. Khrushchev in the life of the agricultural sector of the country was a deep food crisis. In turn, the total shortage of meat and dairy products and bakery products in most regions of the country, which has become essentially chronic, has shown the complete failure of some managerial experiments of the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.Conclusions. Deep unprofessionalism, paternalism, the desire to interfere and direct literally all spheres of the national economy of the country, from space exploration to agriculture — these qualities were inherent in most of the generation of party leaders of the USSR. Khrushchev's unceremonious intervention in the agrarian sphere led to serious negative economic and social consequences, a sharp decline in the party's authority in society, which continued in the following years after his departure from the political arena. In the end, in 1991, it was not so much the foreign and homegrown "enemies of Soviet power" that crushed a huge power, but above all, the inability of the country's party elite to solve the most pressing problems of Soviet people.

THE ROLE OF THE VOID OF TERMINATION AS EVIDENCE IN THE SETTLEMENT OF CIVIL JURISDICTION PROCESSES IN STATE COURTS

Courts have an important role in implementing the rule of law concept during the democratization process, especially in the transition from an authoritarian political system to a democratic society. In the process of seeking justice in court, the parties try to win the case in their own way, this can be an obstacle for the court in making decisions or in determining the truth of a case. In connection with this, here will try to analyze logically and systematically about the implementation of the oath as evidence in court, for the smooth running of the judicial process in court. The nature of the research used by the author in writing this thesis is descriptive analysis, which describes and describes all the data obtained from the results of the literature study relating to the title of legal writing which is clearly and in detail then analyzed in order to answer the problems studied. The form of the method of this thesis writing research is a normative juridical approach and empirical juridical approach. Regarding the procedure for implementing the severing oath, it is regulated in Articles 1932 and 1933 of the Civil Code, Article 156 HIR, and the legal force of an oath before a court is the most important thing in procedural law because the court in upholding the law and justice is nothing but based on evidence. The breaker oath aims to settle the case being examined. Therefore, the severing oath must be deccisoir, meaning it is severing and ending the root cause.

Organizing under pressure: authoritarianism, respectability politics, and lgbt advocacy in Rwanda

ABSTRACT In 2009, following several countries including Burundi and Nigeria, a proposal was introduced in Rwanda to criminalize same-sex sex and lgbt activism. However, unlike the other countries, Rwanda’s Article 217 criminalization proposal was eliminated within months of its introduction. While this result can be understood as a success story, it also can elide the obstacles Rwandan activists experience when organizing for lgbt people. The cross-movement coalition that formed to oppose Article 217 specifically adopted a nonconfrontational strategy designed to work within the authoritarian political system in Rwanda. While activists framed the removal of Article 217 as aligned with existing government priorities, the dialogue strategy has clear limits when activists’ goals are to make further changes in Rwanda, particularly when government officials do not see further changes as aligned with their priorities. A combination of the authoritarian system and the government’s focus on economic development and individual advancement narrowly circumscribe what types of activism the government will accept. This imperative to conform to government expectations means activists adopt rhetoric and encourage lgbt people to engage in activities that are focused on how they appear as individuals. This focus on the individual elides the wider structural problems that exist in Rwanda that perpetuate discrimination againstlgbt people, particularly those who experience multiple marginalizations. Lgbt activism is circumscribed so it can occur in Rwanda, but this has consequences for how much change is advocated for and who benefits from this activism.

Democratic and Authoritarian Political Systems in 21st-Century World Society: Differentiation, Inclusion, Responsiveness

Democratic and Authoritarian Political Systems in 21^st-Century World Society: Differentiation, Inclusion, Responsiveness

Policy Stringency, Political Conditions, and Public Performances of Pandemic Control: An International Comparison

What factors might explain the cross-country variations in COVID-19 public performances and what lessons can be drawn to be better-prepared for future pandemics? This study focuses on the effects of policy stringency on COVID-19 public health outcomes to gain insights into national-level state responses to COVID-19 and the conditions for their effectiveness. Using data from 136 countries comprising 91.4% of the global population, we find that more stringent policies lead to lower infection and death rates. More importantly, the negative effects of restrictive policies on infection and death rates are moderated by political trust and democracy levels, possibly through the mechanism of popular compliance with government policies. Under conditions of higher political trust and lower democracy levels, the policy effects on infection and death rates are greater. However, while the results suggest the importance of policy stringency and political trust, we should not draw the conclusion that authoritarian political systems are more conducive to policy effectiveness. When comparing the moderating effects of political trust and democracy, political trust is more important as a facilitating factor. Therefore, in addition to making scientifically-supported policies, fostering political trust should be an important goal for governments to be better prepared for future pandemics.

Making Sense of the News in an Authoritarian Regime: Russian Television Viewers’ Reception of the Russia–Ukraine Conflict

Scholars report contradictory findings regarding whether citizens trust media in autocracies. Relying on focus group methodology, this study uses Russian television viewers’ reception of the Russia–Ukraine conflict to investigate media perception in an autocracy. It argues that citizens in non-democracies lack the opportunities, motivation and tools to substantively process news. When perceiving news, they express both critical and supportive reactions towards the regime without integrating them into coherent views and thus support authoritarian equilibrium by being unable to articulate consistent opinions. This argument helps to explain the paradoxes of media (dis)trust and clarifies the process of media perception in authoritarian political systems.

The Portuguese ‘New State’ and the Diffusion of Authoritarian Models in Interwar Latin America

As an authoritarian ‘gravity centre’ in the interwar period, the Portuguese New State was not the product of strong propaganda or power capacity. Its force of attraction derived, essentially, from having an international means of diffusion: important segments of the Catholic Church's organizations, its associated intellectual politicians, and particularly from having led a corporatist and authoritarian political system model. How and why did Salazar's New State inspire some of the new political institutions proposed by radical right-wing elites or created by many of these regimes? This article tackles this issue by adopting a transnational and comparative research approach, paying particular attention to the primary mediators of its diffusion and analyzing institutional reform processes in selected processes of crises and transitions to authoritarianism in Latin America.

The Power of Putin in Russian Foreign Policy

The Power of Putin in Russian Foreign Policy

Evaluation and Development of Human Rights on National and International Levels

One of the perennial issues of politics has been the problem of striking a right balance between the rights of the individual and the authority of the State. While authority or sovereignty of the State is essential to maintain order and stability in the nation State (which is benevolent to its each and all individual citizens), the rights of theindividuals are essential for enabling them to develop their personality and to lead a happy and prosperous life enjoying their human rights. “Rights” and “authority” are not opposed to each other. In other words, human rights complement the authority of the State. In fact, they shape each other’s nature, importance and the content. Thus human rights can find better protection in an orderly and stable political system. The relationship that exists between individuals and their governments, at a given point of time, determines the very nature and content of human rights. Also, the type of political system a country has determines the extent of human rights protection available. Therefore, most modern political systems are generally labelled as democratic or authoritarian depending on the degree and kind of human rights guaranteed to the citizens. In an ideal democratic political system, the individual’s personal liberties and restraints, or rights and duties would be so organized that the rights and duties of others are not jeopardized. In other words, in such apolitical system, every individual should enjoy the maximum freedoms to do as he pleased, compatible with the rights of others to do the same. In authoritarian political system, the individual political rights are compromised, allegedly to serve the collective or social human rights of the nation. There are many reasons why governments are created by human beings. Social and political theorists and politicians have answered this perennial issue. Among the many useful functions that governments serve in modern times many of them are concerned directly or indirectly with promoting and protecting human rights of the individuals. Governments serve many functions, such as community and nation building, protecting property and other rights, promoting economic efficiency and growth, promoting other public goods like public parks, roads, light houses, etc., protecting environment, ensuring national defense and advancing social justice. Modern governments promote social justice by redistributing wealth and other resources between citizens. Some states like India have established a huge corpus of protective discrimination laws.

Power Structures in the Implementation of Internal Armed Violence: Repression and Terror in the Political Systems Practice

The practice of using force and law structures in the implementation of repression and terror and the experience of preventing these types of armed violence in different political systems of today are analyzed. The categories “power structures”, “armed violence”, “repression and terror” were defined. It is revealed that in today's essential understanding repression and terror were first used as one of the force tools for stabilizing socio-political processes within the revolutions of the mid-seventeenth - early twentieth centuries and a series of post-revolutionary civil wars and coups d'etat. It is stated that upon completion of the processes of the modern world system formation, which according to I. Wallerstein operates on the basis of market mechanisms, provides for the presence of central, semi-peripheral and peripheral zones with fundamentally different economic potential. The possibility of using repression and terror became directly dependent on the political structure existing in a given country. It is noted that in the liberal-democratic political systems typical of the center of today's world economy, repression and terror as elements of power are completely absent, as it prevents the security forces from entering the political process and public control over their activities. Under the semi-peripheral totalitarian system, the analyzed types of armed violence are an integral part of the state functioning and are used in all social spheres. In authoritarian political systems, typical for the semi-periphery and the periphery, terror is not used, and repression is not the main instrument of domination which is used exactly for political purposes. The structure of the clan-oligarchic system, widespread in the semi-peripheral zone, creates potential opportunities for repression. However, their widespread usage is blocked by elements of facade democracy, which are exploited by economic and political groups in competition with the central government.

Origins of the Differences in Political Systems of the Central Asian States: Threat Perception in the Perestroika Period

Using the “path-dependence” concept and D. Slater’s thesis on the consolidation of elites around national threats, the author examines the factors infl uencing the formation of diff erent authoritarian political systems in the Central Asian states. A critical aspect of the formation of political systems in this region was the events from the mid-1980s to the collapse of the Soviet Union. In terms of the structure of the study, the article consistently examines how interethnic and other political confl icts demonstrated the (un)ability of leaders to cope with crises. In particular, it shows that the inability to cope with political challenges in Kyrgyzstan marked the beginning of “pluralism by default.” Moscow’s involvement in the personnel issues in the republics, especially in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, undermined local elites and increased the overall sense of threat to political stability, which eventually rallied elites and gave rise to expectations of a strong leader. We also note that a notably fortifi ed power hierarchy was established where the new national leader perceived threats from his political rivals (in Uzbekistan). Conversely, the existence of a strong opposition prevented the rapid establishment of authoritarianism. In Tajikistan, for example, a split of the elite led to a civil war, but due to the greater stability of its governmental wing, the president subsequently managed to establish a hard authoritarian regime. In Turkmenistan, the country’s leader took advantage of the lack of threats to establish a dictatorship. Thus, external challenges contribute to the consolidation of elites, while the risks of internal competition contribute to the concentration of power in the hands of an authoritarian leader. On the contrary, prolonged threats divide elites, lead to mass confl icts or the formation of a relatively democratic but unstable system of state power.