Authoritarian Political System Research Articles

The Economies of Central Asia: A Survey

The ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia have instituted some economic reforms within their authoritarian political systems, including reliance on worldwide exports of their energy, mineral, and agricultural products, and select imports. Besides relatively poor and aid-dependent Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, all have now recovered their pre-independence levels of income and begun to grow at respectable rates. The petro-dependent states of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have grown fastest lately but show signs of corruption and ‘Dutch disease’. Like independence-minded Uzbekistan, all try to derive benefits from surrounding great powers and international financial institutions without giving up their freedom of action.

Signal Left, Turn Right: Central Rhetoric and Local Reform in China

How have local officials in China been able to break through central policy restrictions in a unitary and authoritarian political system? Why is China’s official discourse in the reform era often so conservative and unfavorable to reform? I argue the two issues are components of a signaling game between China’s central government and local officials, in which local officials know that the center may be reformist, but the reformist center imitates the rhetoric of a conservative center in order to control the pace of local liberalization. The result is a gradualist reform of “signaling left and turning right”, with glaring incongruity of speech and actions in the process.

Gorbachev, Lenin, and the Break with Leninism

Abstract: The author examines the paradox of Mikhail Gorbachev's esteem for Lenin in combination with his growing rejection of Leninism. While Gorbachev still held the office of general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, he embraced ideas fundamentally at odds with those of the Soviet Union's principal architect. The focus of Western writers on Gorbachev's 1987 book, Perestroika. New Thinking for Our Country and the World, as a major source has been simplistic and misleading, obscuring the radicalization of Gorbachev's political ideas from 1988 onward. Drawing, inter alia, on previously unused archival documents, the author demonstrates how Gorbachev's views moved closer to those of Eduard Bernstein, a democratic socialist thinker whom Lenin despised, than to Leninism. Given the institutional power Gorbachev wielded until late in the perestroika period, his embrace of concepts radically at odds with Leninism was of critical importance, opening doors which had remained firmly closed for decades. Keywords: Bernstein, Bolshevik, command-administrative system, democratization, Gorbachev, Lenin, Leninism, perestroika, pluralism, socialism In a highly authoritarian political system, with great power vested in the office at the top of the political hierarchy, the values, policy preferences, and personality of the holder of that office are liable to make a bigger difference to major policy outcomes than the personality, values, and preferences of the head of government within a democracy. The constraints on the latter will be far greater--not only from members of his her party, but also from opposition parties, the legislature, the judiciary, organized interests, and public opinion, to name the most obvious. That is not to say, however, that the power of the top leader in an authoritarian system is entirely unconstrained. If the authoritarian system is a) highly institutionalized and b) highly ideologized, then there are likely to be quite serious obstacles in the path of major innovation of even the topmost leader. In particular, it will be very risky for him (I do not add or her, for male leadership is ubiquitous in totalitarian and authoritarian regimes) to attempt to change the basic tenets of the system's legitimating ideology its institutional norms. These factors all apply to the case of Mikhail Gorbachev and the transformation of the Soviet system. When Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1985, he attained the office which commanded greater institutional resources than any other within the country. Yet this was in a thoroughly consolidated authoritarian regime--in the classification of Linz and Stepan an example of post-totalitarianism (1)--in which the top leader was accorded great authority provided he played by the rules of the game. There was an important precedent in the post-Stalin Soviet Union illustrating the potential vulnerability of even the supreme leader. Although Nikita Khrushchev did not challenge the norms of the system to anything like the extent to which Gorbachev was subsequently to do, his frequent reorganizations of the party and state structures and an unwillingness to work through the established bureaucratic channels led to his removal from the leadership in October 1964 on the instigation of the leading members of the Politburo, (2) backed up by the Central Committee as a whole. (3) Gorbachev was always conscious of the fate of Khrushchev and of his need, therefore, to persuade other members of the ruling oligarchy to embark on far-reaching reform. He could not simply introduce radical change by fiat, although he had a power of appointment which enabled him gradually to change the composition of the top leadership team. Even that power was by no means unconstrained. Promotion to the highest executive committee within the system, the Politburo, was by a process of collective co-option, in which the pool of talent was restricted to people who were already members of the Central Committee (chosen at five-year intervals at party congresses). …

Gender and the Orange Revolution

A gendered perspective on politics is used for explaining why Ukraine's Orange Revolution has so far not led to a dramatic increase in the political influence of civic associations or to a broader democratization of power relations within the political system. Women entered the post-communist political system in a marginal position. They were also never able to develop political bargaining power in the authoritarian political system that emerged after Ukraine's independence. The prospect of integration into the European Union has increased the salience of gender inequality, because states that seek to join the EU must enact extensive equal opportunity legislation. But elite divisions about Ukraine's geopolitical orientation reduce the likelihood that gender equality measures that have been introduced will be implemented successfully. This article benefited from helpful comments from David Mandell and Nicole Edgar Morford. The International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) and the Reed College Levine Fund generously provided funding that made possible the research upon which this article is based.

Credibility of media offerings in centrally controlled media systems: a qualitative study based on the example of East Germany

Research on media use in authoritarian political systems supports the thesis that media offerings in such systems suffer from a low factor of credibility, leading to declining political interest within society, continuous retreat into the private sphere and heavy use of foreign media offerings in the search of trustworthy information. The literature indicates that both the political and centrally controlled media system have an impact on the communication needs of citizens. These findings are at odds with audience research into democratic societies, which has emphasized entertainment as the most important variable for media use, whereas only a few segments of the audience are interested in genuinely political items. This article argues that the above assumptions concerning media use in countries governed by authoritarian regimes have failed to recognize the role of daily life in media selection and reception. It points out that communication science has ignored citizens’ predominant desire for entertainment and over-estimated their need for information. The typology of East German media consumers presented in this article shows that, rather than being formed by the political system and a specific media landscape, people’s communication needs are primarily shaped by the routines and patterns of everyday life.

Chile, del orden natural al autoritarismo republicano

We argue that environmental impacts of Chile's resources got reflected in an authoritarian political system that privileged order over liberty, justifying a political reality characterized through search of natural orders, based on general social conditions in place at beginning of 19th century. Therefore, Chile was portrayed as happy copy of heaven, and, in political realm, framed by discourses such as the asylum against oppression; even though that meant putting in power an authoritarian regime. Unlike situations in other Latin American country, stability and order was maintained, serving as basis to promise a magnificent future.

The people's state: East German society from Hitler to Honecker

What was life really like for East Germans, effectively imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain? The headline stories of Cold War spies and surveillance by the secret police, of political repression and corruption, do not tell the whole story. After the unification of Germany in 1990 many East Germans remembered their lives as interesting, varied and full of educational, career and leisure opportunities: in many ways 'perfectly ordinary lives'. Using the rich resources of the newly-opened GDR archives, Mary Fulbrook investigates these conflicting narratives. She explores the transformation of East German society from the ruins of Hitler's Third Reich to a modernising industrial state. She examines changing conceptions of normality within an authoritarian political system, and provides extraordinary insights into the ways in which individuals perceived their rights and actively sought to shape their own lives. Replacing the simplistic black-and-white concept of 'totalitarianism' by the notion of a 'participatory dictatorship', this book seeks to reinstate the East German people as actors in their own history.

The Algerian Presidential Elections of 2004: An Analysis of Power Relationships in the Political System

In authoritarian political systems such as Algeria's, interest in electoral processes does not really stem basically from studying their results and electoral behaviour, but mainly from the knowledge we can glean about the characteristics of the political system, the relationships of power among the political actors and the political regime's strategies for its legitimization and survival. This is the perspective used to analyse the elections for the President of the Republic, held on 8 April 2004, in which Abdelaziz Bouteflika was re-elected for another five-year term of office. Firstly, the article examines the functions of the elections in the Algerian political system. Secondly, it studies both the formal and the real role played by the representative institutions and how the ANP (Armée National Populaire – Popular National Army) has acted as a counterweight to them. Thirdly, the article analyses the presidential elections of 2004, attempting to offer an explanation for the overwhelming victory of Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

"Let's not rock the boat" Frauenorganisationen und Demokratisierung in Malaysia

This paper focuses on the Malaysian women's movement and its potential for democratisation. Civil society actors in Malaysia have to face various restrictions set by a developmentalist and increasingly authoritarian political system and have to deal with increasing particularism based on ethnic and religious identities. This development is due to the ethno-nationalist state project and the process of a, partly state-driven, Islarnisation both of which have accelerated since the 1970s. It is argued that in Malaysia the discourse on Gender Equality and Women's Rights is ideally suited to constitute a public sphere and the formulation of political dissent. The transformational potential of this public sphere, which women's organisations build up through strategies of popularisation of feminist ideas and transnational networking, is grounded in the possibility of linking gender issues to broader societal issues like democratisation, sustainable development and religious pluralism. Within this space alternative visions of gender relations, development, and the political system are formulated.

Information Technology, Public Space, and Collective Action in China

The Internet has stimulated academic inquiries on the political implications of the Internet revolution. A great deal of attention has been focused on the following: Has the Internet altered the nature of interaction between the state and society? Will the Internet ultimately be able to promote the democratic transition of existing authoritarian political systems? This article attempts to address these two questions based on an empirical study of the situation in China. The article explores the democratic implications of the Internet in the context of the interplay between the state and society by setting up a three-layered analytical framework, that is, the Internet as a tool for communication, the Internet as public space, and the Internet as a means for collective action. In China, the impact of the Internet on democratic transition differs at each of these three layers, depending on the interaction strategies between the state and society.

Effective public affairs in China: MNC‐government bargaining power and corporate strategies for influencing foreign business policy formulation

China’s open‐market reform and rapid economic growth have generated a tremendous surge in activity and market investment by multinational corporations (MNCs). By 2000, 400 of the 500 most famous MNCs had invested in China. One distinctive feature of China’ s business environment, its authoritarian political system, requires MNCs to practise strategic public affairs to interact constantly with the different levels of Chinese government, respond to the policies and further influence business policy formation. This paper proposes a conceptual model of MNC‐government bargaining that is composed of international political economy, dependency theory and agency theory. It then examines (1) the international and domestic influences on MNC‐government bargaining in China and (2) the strategies MNCs employed to influence Chinese laws for foreign business in their interests. A case study of the Chinese ban on direct selling operations in 1998 and Amway’s strategies to remove the ban is presented. Results suggest that effective public affairs should engage in the following activities: (1) issues management, (2) constantly and systematically analysing the MNC’s bargaining power with the host government, (3) selecting public affairs strategies based on the analysis of MNC‐government bargaining, (4) exercising relationship management, and (5) being ethical in its practice.

The Dynamics of Employee Dissent: Whistleblowers and Organizational Jiu-Jitsu

Whistleblowing is a form of organizational dissent that is rarely successful, instead usually leading to disaster for the whistleblower. Organizational theorists seldom have addressed the question of how to improve whistleblowers’ strategies. A useful general perspective for doing this is to conceive of bureaucracies as authoritarian political systems. The concept of political jiu-jitsu, from the theory of nonviolent action, is adapted to organizational contexts and used to assess a range of tactics used by organizational elites against dissidents. The resulting implications for whistleblower strategies are assessed by comparison with standard recommendations offered by experienced whistleblower advisers.

Legal Institutions and their Proper Place in Economic Development: India and China Compared

For modern India, the Chinese experience poses the daunting question as to whether democracy and judicial activism are incompatible with development. Can the Chinese rate of economic growth, like that of the Four Asian Dragons previously, only be achieved in an authoritarian political system, dominated by the executive branch of government and its administrative bureaucracy? It is the thesis of this paper that India can - indeed, already has - altered its economic policies without abandoning either representative democracy or the rule of law. The Indian courts, long criticized for obstructing liberalization, have already issued major decisions in support of policies which emphasize efficiency considerations over individual rights to job security in the state sector. The courts accomplished this shift in direction while remaining firmly within the framework of common law adjudication.

China's Growth Treadmill: Globalization, Human Rights and International Relations

Although as a rising world power China appears to have successfully integrated into a new interdependent world, globalization has often had unintended consequences, not only for its domestic developments, in particular its human rights, but also for its international relations. One of the defining influences on its mode of integration has been the historical circumstances of its initial exclusion from the United Nations, and its effective entry into the international community at a time when the market ruled supreme in almost all fields of endeavor. That China embraced the market eagerly and swiftly without considering its impact on its citizens' human rights is perhaps not surprising in the light of its authoritarian political system. But it has also embraced the market without internalizing the sine qua non of market success – acceptance of the rule of law and the need for transparency in its international policies. The consequences of its selective acceptance of the norms of globalization and its partial integration into the international system are highlighted in an analysis of the effects of its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The impact of its membership on both its human rights and international relations reveals the drawbacks of the developmental path that China has chosen.

Powerlessness of Older People in Hong Kong

Gerontologists agree that old age can be associated with an increase in powerlessness both in the personal domain and in the social and political fields. This paper is an attempt to understand the concept of powerlessness in old age within a political economy theoretical framework. The paper argues that the powerlessness of older people is not biologically determined. Rather, it is socially constructed. It has its roots in the social, economic, and political structure of society. For this reason, the paper argues that (a) the capitalist economic system discriminates against and marginalizes older people in the labor market. The current unfavorable economic climate will make the economic situation of older people worse. (b) The residual welfare system does not counteract the unfavorable impact of the economic system. Rather, it deprives older people of the necessary financial resources and social service supports that would enable them to lead independent and dignified lives. (c) The authoritarian political system creates adverse conditions that make it very difficult for older people to participate in the decision-making process on issues that affect their lives, as well as on broader political issues that affect the whole of society. It is the interplay among these economic, social, and political forces in Hong Kong that creates the political economy of powerlessness in old age and prevents older people from using their powers to master and control their lives.

Law versus the State: The Judicialization of Politics in Egypt

This study seeks to explain the paradoxical expansion of constitutional power in Egypt over the past two decades, despite that country's authoritarian political system. I find that the Egyptian regime established an independent constitutional court, capable of providing institutional guarantees on the security of property rights, in order to attract desperately needed private investment after the failure of its socialist-oriented development strategy. The court continued to expand its authority, fundamentally transforming the mode of interaction between state and society by supporting regime efforts to liberalize the economy while simultaneously providing new avenues for opposition activists and human rights groups to challenge the state. The Egyptian case challenges some of our basic assumptions about the conditions under which we are likely to see a judicialization of politics, and it invites scholars to explore the dynamics of judicial politics in other authoritarian political systems.

The Dual Developmental State: Development Strategy and Institutional Arrangements for China's Transition (review)

Reviewed by: The Dual Developmental State: Development Strategy and Institutional Arrangements for China's Transition Wong Yiu-chung (bio) Ming Xia . The Dual Developmental State: Development Strategy and Institutional Arrangements for China's Transition. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2000. 263 pp. Hardcover $79.95, ISBN 1-84014-833-0. In the introductory chapter to this volume, author Ming Xia outlines the theoretical framework that is used to analyze China's development strategy. The term "dual developmental state," devised for this study, is explained by the author to mean that the "Chinese developmental state is defined and sustained by both the legislative institution and local political institutions. There is a dual structure from the central to local levels, between the governments and the People's Congresses" (p. 3). "When a developmental central state coexists with local developmental states, [when] a developmental executive coexists with a developmental legislative system in China, a dual developmental state is formed" (p. 6). Chapter 2 discusses the three paradigms of development models—the West, Eastern Europe (including the former Soviet Union), and East Asia—and two approaches to running the political and economic system, namely the American and the Japanese. Chapter 3 argues that China's political elite has adopted the East Asian development model because the transaction and transition costs are the lowest. Chapter 4 discusses the institutional arrangements at the central level that support the developmental state. Chapter 5 examines the expanded role of the National People's Congress (NPC) in the context of one-party rule. Chapter 6 discusses the role of the Provincial People's Congresses (PPCs) in the development process. Chapter 7 is a study of Shenzhen as a showcase of central-local interactive synergism. Chapter 8 summarizes the main arguments of the book and anticipates future consequences of policy decisions. [End Page 277] Besides relying on academic terminology such as "theories of institutionalism," "comparative transaction cost," and "transition cost," which appear to be converging on the concept of total efficiency, the author seems to be offering an ex post facto explanation of the success of China's political economy. However, in my view, the crucial issue posed by the book is whether or not the author argues convincingly that China's development strategy is a viable new paradigm for development theory. According to the author, the classic model of development has two important institutional features: the suppression of local autonomy and the negligible impact of local legislatures. In comparing China's development with the model, the author argues that on the level of institutional arrangements China has deviated in these two important respects from other developing East Asian states (p. 3). The fundamental question is this: is China so different from the East Asian development model that China constitutes a new model? I feel that the answer is a resounding no. In the literature on development, social scientists normally make a distinction between the East Asian model and the successful development strategy of the Japanese. Those who are interested in the latter can refer to Ezra Vogel's Japan as Number One: A Challenge to the United States—a best seller in the category of development literature in the early 1980s. Regarding development in East Asia, namely in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, a variety of explanations have been offered for their success. The Political Economy of East Asian Industrialism, edited by Frederic C. Deyo, Robert Wade's Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asian Industrialization, and Peter Berger and Michael Hsiao's In Search of an East Asian Development Model are three good introductions to the subject. In my view, the structural features of the East Asian development model, which could be described as an export-oriented industrialization strategy, can be summarized as follows. First, there is a ruling elite that is committed to economic development. Second, there are appropriate government policies and institutional arrange-ments, such as a preferential tax system that benefits foreign investors and a market economy that offers foreign investors maximum profit. Third, there is an authoritarian political system under which any opposition is often harshly crushed—for the simple reason that social and political stability are necessary...

Law versus the State: The Judicialization of Politics in Egypt

This study seeks to explain the paradoxical expansion of constitutional power in Egypt over the past two decades, despite that country’s authoritarian political system. I find that the Egyptian regime established an independent constitutional court, capable of providing institutional guarantees on the security of property rights, in order to attract desperately needed private investment after the failure of its socialist-oriented development strategy.The court continued to expand its authority, fundamentally transforming the mode of interaction between state and society by supporting regime efforts to liberalize the economy while simultaneously providing new avenues for opposition activists and human rights groups to challenge the state. The Egyptian case challenges some of our basic assumptions about the conditions under which we are likely to see a judicialization of politics, and it invites scholars to explore the dynamics of judicial politics in other authoritarian political systems.

Credibility and Reputation Building in the Developmental State: A Model with East Asian Applications

We use a game-theoretic model to analyze the role of credibility, reputation and investment coordination in a developmental state. Our model focuses on why a “soft” state serving narrow social groups so often obtains in less-developed countries and under what conditions a “hard” or developmental state can emerge. The model highlights the dilemma that although state and private sector alike may want economic growth, both must simultaneously invest to achieve it. But the equilibrium outcome—analogous to the prisoner's dilemma—is investment by neither. Even when initial conditions are favorable and a state is potentially developmental with the genuine capability to elicit private sector investment, this may not materialize and an equilibrium of low, or no, investment will prevail. To avoid this deadlock and foster growth, the successful developmental state must demonstrate commitment by promoting its “developmental” credentials through a process of reputation building. A consequent incentive to act “tough” together with seeming advantages of authoritarianism in implementing the developmental state may help to explain why it is often associated with an authoritarian political system.

Homicide Trends in Finland and Estonia in 1880–1940: Consequences of the Demographic, Social and Political Effects of Industrialization

While in western Europe and Scandinavia homicide rates reached their all time low during the period of industrialization, in Finland and Estonia they increased considerably. The rapid growth of criminal violence during the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s in these two countries seems to have been the result of interaction of several factors, partly non-simultaneous and unrelated. They do not seem to have been identical either, although the underlying equation was the same: the quick social and economic change following industrialization, and the modernisation of agriculture, the pressures it put especially on the youth in the form of uncertain prospects for the future and a new competition-oriented set of values, connected with the authoritarian political system of Russian Empire, which prevented necessary political reforms and left behind a legacy of social thinking idealizing violence as a political and social instrument. A legacy, which affected large parts of Finnish and Estonian population still for years after the czarist system itself already passed into history. The criminal violence arisen from the equation, however, had quite a different face on the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland from that on the southern one. In Finland the violence was centered in the new forest industrial communities, in Estonia again among the landless population of the countryside.