Authoritarian Politics Research Articles

Authoritarian Development in Morocco: The ‘Developmental State’ without State Development

Development and authoritarian rule are often viewed as a contradiction in terms, but Morocco exemplifies their confluence in the framework of what could be called ‘authoritarian development’, wherein democracy is divorced from the process and practice of development. This paper examines the contradictory, rocky development path of the Moroccan state. While the state sets the rhythm for the development of society, it itself is impervious to development. As a result, development is a piecemeal practice, confined to the economic and social spheres while neglecting the political sphere, which consequently brings lower positive yields from development. The paper also examines the authoritarian nature of the Moroccan developmental model in light of modernisation theory and developmental authoritarianism, guided by the theory of competitive authoritarianism. It shows that the constraints on citizens’ economic and social empowerment are largely attributable to the fact that the political transformation of the state has been excluded as a possibility. The paper finds that the form of development in Morocco constitutes an extension of political authoritarianism and that the latter is responsible for the failure of economic and social development, concluding that political development geared to dismantling authoritarianism is a prerequisite for the development of the state.

Fascist politics and the dread of white supremacy in the age of disconnections

With the rise of authoritarian politics across the globe, echoes of a fascist past are with us once again signaling a looming and dangerous threat to education and democracy. This essay argues that is it crucial to engage fascism both as a language of white supremacy and a politics of disconnection. If fascism is to be addressed both politically and educationally, it is crucial to address its underlying political, educational, and economic elements comprehensively as part of a broad politics. Any viable mode of resistance to fascism in its upgraded forms must not only make education central to politics but also analyze the problems it produces and its root causes in their interconnections and as part of a wider totality of power and exclusion. Fascism is normalized in a capitalist order when its diverse economic, political and social problems appear fragmented, disconnected, and are treated in isolation. This essay argues against this form of normalization and critiques the relationship between fascism and capitalism and its politics of diversion by examining how a number of crucial issues are often wrongly dealt with in isolation. It concludes by demonstrating how a politics that is comprehensive and interrelated provides a language to rethink how fascism can be made visible and resisted.

Authoritative Populism and the Media: Perception Control and Narrative Building in India

The article analyses the interrelationship between authoritarian populism and the media in India. It explores the core question of political authoritarianism under the rule of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and whether it has exercised control on media. The article explores two main questions: First, what are the dynamics of media control in India, if any? Second, whether media control has played any role in the polarisation of the Indian society. The article employs the theoretical framework of authoritarian populism, using content analysis, to explore whether media has any role to play in the recent upsurge of right-wing Hindu nationalism. The article’s empirical evidence suggest media’s complacent and partisan role, favouring populist political agenda in India. The article highlights that the bulk of Indian media works under the state control, with major newsgroups towing the ruling BJP’s line on exclusivists right-wing ideology. Furthermore, the groups which do not comply have faced governmental repression and clampdown for independent reporting and objective journalism. The article’s original contribution rests in the analyses of authoritarian populism and right-wing nationalist control of the media and the health of democracy in India.

Challenging the rules of the game: clientelism and dissent in the Middle East

ABSTRACT Since 2010, waves of protest have ebbed and now largely faded across the Arab states of the Middle East, and authoritarian politics there appear to be stronger than ever. Has dissent disappeared, or merely become harder to notice? I argue in this article that clientelism serves as an important locus of latent dissent in the Middle East, one that calls into question the legitimacy of authoritarian regimes, though it often happens away from public view. Employing data from four waves of the Arab Barometer, however, I show that the more citizens perceive clientelism to be prevalent in society, the less likely they are to willingly obey their government when they disagree with it. This finding is most pronounced among those most on the fence about obeying the government in the first place, and during periods in which overt dissent is least apparent. Clientelism beliefs also increase support for democratic alternatives in the most recent data. In addition, while clientelism should increase voting and election-related mobilization, I find inconsistent results across time. This article complicates our current understanding of the role clientelism plays in authoritarian states, and it sheds new light on the “client side” of the patron-client relationship.

Global city formation, authoritarian politics, and transnational policy transfer: The case of affordable housing in China

AbstractConventional research on global cities and policy transfer focuses on global cities in developed democracies. How Asian global cities innovate and transfer social policy has received less scholarly attention. I argue that transnational policy transfer (TPT) has occurred between more mature global cities in Asia and emerging global cities in China in the post‐reform era. Empirically, this article examines the policy domain of affordable housing (AH) and identifies two mature models of AH provision: asset‐based welfare (ABW) in Singapore and public rental housing (PRH) in Hong Kong. It then traces how these models were transferred in three emerging global cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. While Shanghai has favored Singapore's ABW model, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have prioritized Hong Kong's PRH model. By selecting three cases with different political‐administrative statuses, this article shows how authoritarian politics can interact with the agency of global cities in shaping varying TPT trajectories.

“Strictness is a Virtue” – Social Determination of Authoritarian Parenting and Political Authoritarianism

Abstract Parenting and children’s rights are intimately related. The parenting styles characterised by low responsiveness to children’s needs, including authoritarian-paternalistic and those of neglect, are harmful to child’s development and contradict the main principles of children’s rights. The slow development of children’s rights in Kazakhstan and, in general, in the Eurasian1 context, derives from the social norms justifying authoritarian-paternalistic parenting, specifically, the widespread belief that “strictness is a virtue”. This article proposes and discusses the concepts of “social determination of authoritarian parenting” and “social determination of political authoritarianism”. The former concept denotes an embodiment of social norms that shape the parenting styles with low responsiveness to children’s needs, especially authoritarian-paternalistic. The latter suggests that authoritarianism is a product of social and cultural contexts, including parenting. These concepts, being mutually supportive phenomena, create the vicious circle of the persistency of authoritarianism in both politics and in child-rearing.

Why are spreading deceptive political conspiracy theories ethically wrong?

Conspiracy theories in expert circles generally have a bad reputation, which is conditioned by the fact that according to some studies, the spread of conspiracy theories has a number of negative consequences: it increases society's indifference to politics, distrust of science etc. However, there are some other researchers who believe that the spread of conspiracy theories has positive effects: it increases the accountability of authorities, contributes to the disclosure of hidden conspiracies, and, in general, is an indicator of the transparency of society. Therefore, attempts by state institutions to prevent the spread of such theories can lead to even more negative consequences. This article analyzes these two approaches to the problem and argues that the dissemination of conspiracy theories is ethically wrong mainly in cases when we are dealing with deceptive political conspiracy theories. These are deceptive, misleading theories that certain political groups use to serve their political agenda. From an ethical point of view, the wrongness of spreading deceptive political conspiracy theories is based on the fact that as a kind of fake news, they mislead and harm society, are mainly used by populist and authoritarian politicians to polarize various social groups, justify their illegitimate actions, and reject the principle of equality among members of society.

Brazilian autocratic infra-legalism: a response to Kim Lane Scheppele

Kim Lane Scheppele claims that “autocratic legalism” is a new form of political authoritarianism, characterized by the use of laws and constitutional engineering. I argue that the Brazilian case provides two counterarguments to this thesis, first refuting the idea that lessons learned from past authoritarianism do not involve the use of law for non-democratic purposes, and then arguing that there are other legal instruments suitable for the implementation of political authoritarianism besides constitutions and laws. To this end, I divide the article into five parts. First, I sketch the theoretical approach and methodology. Second, I consider a broader literature on the significance of law in non-democratic regimes. Next, I report the importance of the use of law in the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985). Fourth, I explain the use of administrative legal tools in contemporary Brazil and how this use evidences the existence of an “autocratic infra-legalism.” Finally, I present some concluding remarks, and a postscript written in the light of the presidential elections of 2022.

Sweet Fuel: A Political and Environmental History of Brazilian Ethanol

Sweet Fuel: A Political and Environmental History of Brazilian Ethanol

Governing “decadent cities”: The far-right as agents of climate counterinsurgency

Ecological crisis has given rise to a range of discussions over “climate fascism,” “green nationalism,” “fossil fascism,” and “eco-fascism.” Several authors have advanced the thesis that climate adaptation will be shaped by an increase in authoritarian politics or an uptick in organized violence (e.g. at the borders of nation-states) as states deploy counterinsurgency tactics against climate refugees and environmental activists. My article inverts this proposition by arguing that far right politics emerges as a contingent possibility in the mode of counterinsurgency governance. I propose the framework of “relations of counterinsurgency” as a means of understanding how counterinsurgency manages crises of urban governability by remaking the spaces of uneven urbanization. I then argue that to theorize contemporary far right climate politics, we should ask what the term eco-fascism does rather than what it is. My argument is that, as climate change makes increasing claims upon political institutions, relations of counterinsurgency allow far right actors to constitute their agency and subjectivity.

The Politics of COVID-19: The Political Logic of China’s Zero-COVID Policy

From the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan in late 2019 until December 2022, China implemented stringent infection prevention and control measures known as the Zero-COVID policy. Western observers and some Chinese intellectuals have questioned this rigid policy, but few studies offer a comprehensive overview of the political reasonings behind it. This article positions the Zero-COVID policy in a broader historical context of the Chinese Communist Party’s regime maintenance, revolutionary legacies, and political mobilisation. It analyses the political reasonings behind this policy from three dimensions: system, actors, and approach, and provides accounts of the politics of the pandemic. The results reveal that the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party was caught in a dilemma. The Zero-COVID policy is used to bolster legitimacy of the regime; however, it also set traps in which the Chinese government risked losing the public’s trust. The negative outcomes of the policy were underestimated by the Chinese leadership, which believed in its ability to balance the cost and benefit of this policy for the sake of maintenance of its rule. The politics of COVID-19 mirrors China’s authoritarian politics in general.

Towards a Green Nationalism with Chinese Characteristics?

ABSTRACT This paper examines the concept of green nationalism in the authoritarian context of China, where the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has adopted the rhetoric of ecological civilization as a means of promoting environmental protection and securing global legitimacy. The authors argue that the CCP's performance legitimacy is closely linked to its ability to address environmental concerns in the context of climate change, and that the development of green nationalism is a rational choice for leaders seeking to maintain this legitimacy. However, the authors also highlight the role of actors such as social entrepreneurs, academics, and environmental NGOs in promoting green nationalism from the bottom-up. Using constructivist political theory, the paper explores how the intersection of different green narratives at various levels can be used to rethink the nation and make claims to legitimacy. Overall, the paper contributes to theory-building by providing a framework for understanding the complex relationship between environmental protection, nationalism, and authoritarian politics in China.

Activism as leadership: Supporting progressive activists within our work

This empirical work is driven by a study on the experiences and motivation of a group of college-aged student activists. Using a cohort of 14 millennial-aged activists who organized their work in response to a rise of right-wing authoritarianism in national and state politics, this paper presents recommendations for how student affairs professionals working in activities-oriented functional areas can leverage these experiences to build capacity around engagement, leadership development, sense of belonging, and work in partnership with these communities to challenge unjust practices within the academy. Further, I argue that in order to do our work of supporting students in their educational ventures, we can no longer claim notions of political neutrality.

The rule of unreason: Analyzing (anti‐)democratic regression

The rule of unreason: Analyzing (anti‐)democratic regression

All Politics Is Local: Studying Women’s Representation in Local Politics in Authoritarian Regimes

The past decade has witnessed a significant increase in women’s presence in local politics. According to the newly published United Nations (UN) Women in Local Government data set, women constitute 36% of local deliberative bodies worldwide compared to merely 25% in national parliaments.1Much of this increase is the result of gender quotas: the Gender Quotas Database (International IDEA 2022) shows that as of 2021, 75 countries had some form of gender quota on the local level, 24 of which were authoritarian regimes. Yet, extant work on gender politics in authoritarian regimes tends to focus on the national level, given the highly centralized decision-making processes in such contexts. We contend that the study of women’s engagement and representation in local politics can help scholars better understand not only gender and politics, but also authoritarian politics more generally.

Analyzing the Justice and Development Party’s changing discourse on the headscarf issue as the constitutive part of its drift toward authoritarian politics in Turkey

Despite its long history since the late Ottoman period in Turkey, this article focuses on the headscarf issue within a particular period; since 2002, when the Justice and Development Party has been in power. Women’s issues have always occupied a large space in the Justice and Development Party’s project(s), which articulate diverse narrative lines ranging from conservatism to liberalism. The article aims to unravel this diverse insight into the Justice and Development Party’s politics within the context of its recent political drift toward authoritarianism while particularly focusing on its headscarf discourses. It argues that the Justice and Development Party’s political drift toward authoritarianism resulted in the replacement of the earlier politics of consensus/‘non-defiance’, which refers to a conservatism that denies radicalism and avoids emphasizing controversial issues like the headscarf, with the politics of dissensus/defiance that reveal social tensions and political conflicts such as those between Islamic and secular sectors, through revitalizing the old debate on the headscarf issue. In this sense, the lifting of the headscarf bans in public institutions in 2008 can be read as a symptom, not of the Justice and Development Party’s earlier liberal stand, but of the beginning of its shift toward authoritarianism based on its religious-nationalist project, which made use of this liberal right of pious women in enhancing the gaps between oppositional groups and in consolidating its social basis. This earlier attempt has been followed by continuous use of the headscarf as a symbol drawing a border between ‘us’ and ‘them’ and signifying outrages and moral crisis for which the Justice and Development Party blamed the oppositional groups. Within this context, the article questions the ways in which the headscarf as a political symbol along with other conservative policies targeting female bodies and sexualities took a part in the constitution and consolidation of the Justice and Development Party’s radical right alliance and its authoritarian regime.

The Struggle to Breathe: Pandemic Years on Western Frontiers

Multiple existential threats – climate breakdown, disease, police violence, lawlessness, trauma, and systemic harms – characterise the pandemic years on western frontiers. This essay considers these and argues that disaster capitalism and authoritarian politics overpower scientific consensus and public opinion in ways that literally and figuratively cause a struggle to breathe.

Environmental Pollution and Authoritarian Politics

Authoritarian rulers fend off revolutions by stimulating the economy. However, expanding the economy can also increase environmental pollution. If citizens value clean air and water, worsening pollution has the potential to galvanize large segments of the society against the regime—which increases the risk of a revolution. While the literature has documented how concerns over the environment upend politics in democracies, we know relatively little about the effects of these concerns in authoritarian regimes. We analyze environmental pollution as an overlooked threat to authoritarian rulers. Using unique data from Communist East Germany and exploiting variation in thermal inversions to instrument for pollution levels, we find that pollution causes both individual and collective expressions of regime dissatisfaction. Our findings suggest that rulers face a trade-off between growing the economy and worsening pollution.

Participation, Development, and Accountability: A Survey Experiment on Democratic Decision-Making in Kenya

Many governments in semi-democratic regimes have adopted participatory democratic institutions to promote development and accountability. But limited resources, weak civil society, and a history of authoritarian politics make building subnational democratic institutions daunting. Do participatory institutions expand accountability in these environments? We address this question by evaluating citizen decision-making in Kenya’s local participatory processes. We first administered a survey experiment surrounding citizens’ development policy preferences to 9,928 respondents in four Kenyan counties. We then nest this survey experiment in participant observation and over 80 elite interviews. Our conclusions are mixed: respondents readily change their policy preferences to align with the government’s policy actions, which suggests limited prospects for accountability. However, respondents use participatory budgeting venues to question government officials about missing projects, which provides a potential foundation for accountability. Yet, uncompetitive local elections, the absence of independent civil society’s participation, and new program rules are likely to limit democratic accountability.

Feminist Pedagogy: Teaching Gender Politics in Egypt

Teaching gender politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is often marked by pedagogical, sociocultural, and political challenges. In the MENA context, the effects of authoritarian politics, conservative cultural understanding of gender relations, and neoliberal policies intersect in the classroom. Amid such a charged setting, applying a feminist pedagogy that subverts paradigms of power and preexisting socioeconomic realities in the classroom is increasingly contentious, yet even more necessary.