Elections, Protest, and Authoritarian Regime Stability

Elections, Protest, and Authoritarian Regime Stability PDF Author: Regina Smyth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108841201
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
This comprehensive study of Russian electoral politics shows the vulnerability of Putin's regime as it navigates the risks of voter manipulation.

Elections, Protest, and Authoritarian Regime Stability

Elections, Protest, and Authoritarian Regime Stability PDF Author: Regina Smyth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108841201
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
This comprehensive study of Russian electoral politics shows the vulnerability of Putin's regime as it navigates the risks of voter manipulation.

Competitive Authoritarianism

Competitive Authoritarianism PDF Author: Steven Levitsky
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139491482
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Based on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was weaker and countries rarely democratized. In these cases, regime outcomes hinged on the character of state and ruling party organizations. Where incumbents possessed developed and cohesive coercive party structures, they could thwart opposition challenges, and competitive authoritarian regimes survived; where incumbents lacked such organizational tools, regimes were unstable but rarely democratized.

Elections, Protest, and Authoritarian Regime Stability

Elections, Protest, and Authoritarian Regime Stability PDF Author: Regina Smyth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110889836X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
In a path-breaking study of Russian elections, Regina Smyth reveals how much electoral competition matters to the Putin regime and how competition leaves Russia more vulnerable to opposition challenges than is perceived in the West. Using original data and analysis, Smyth demonstrates how even weak political opposition can force autocratic incumbents to rethink strategy and find compromises in order to win elections. Smyth challenges conventional notions about Putin's regime, highlighting the vast resources the Kremlin expends to maintain a permanent campaign to construct regime-friendly majorities. These tactics include disinformation as well as symbolic politics, social benefits, repression, and falsification. This book reveals the stresses and challenges of maintaining an electoral authoritarian regime and provides a roadmap to understand how seemingly stable authoritarian systems can fall quickly to popular challenges even when the opposition is weak. A must-read for understanding Russia's future and the role of elections in contemporary autocratic regimes.

Democracy, Accountability, and Representation

Democracy, Accountability, and Representation PDF Author: Adam Przeworski
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521646161
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
6 Party Government and Responsiveness: James A. Stimson

Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes

Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes PDF Author: Tom Ginsburg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107047668
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
This volume explores the form and function of constitutions in countries without the fully articulated institutions of limited government.

The Politics of Protest in Hybrid Regimes

The Politics of Protest in Hybrid Regimes PDF Author: Graeme B. Robertson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139491865
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Since the end of the Cold War, more and more countries feature political regimes that are neither liberal democracies nor closed authoritarian systems. Most research on these hybrid regimes focuses on how elites manipulate elections to stay in office, but in places as diverse as Bolivia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Thailand, Ukraine and Venezuela, protest in the streets has been at least as important as elections in bringing about political change. The Politics of Protest in Hybrid Regimes builds on previously unpublished data and extensive fieldwork in Russia to show how one high-profile hybrid regime manages political competition in the workplace and in the streets. More generally, the book develops a theory of how the nature of organizations in society, state strategies for mobilizing supporters, and elite competition shape political protest in hybrid regimes.

Shock to the System

Shock to the System PDF Author: Michael K. Miller
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691217599
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
How violent events and autocratic parties trigger democratic change How do democracies emerge? Shock to the System presents a novel theory of democratization that focuses on how events like coups, wars, and elections disrupt autocratic regimes and trigger democratic change. Employing the broadest qualitative and quantitative analyses of democratization to date, Michael Miller demonstrates that more than nine in ten transitions since 1800 occur in one of two ways: countries democratize following a major violent shock or an established ruling party democratizes through elections and regains power within democracy. This framework fundamentally reorients theories on democratization by showing that violent upheavals and the preservation of autocrats in power—events typically viewed as antithetical to democracy—are in fact central to its foundation. Through in-depth examinations of 139 democratic transitions, Miller shows how democratization frequently follows both domestic shocks (coups, civil wars, and assassinations) and international shocks (defeat in war and withdrawal of an autocratic hegemon) due to autocratic insecurity and openings for opposition actors. He also shows how transitions guided by ruling parties spring from their electoral confidence in democracy. Both contexts limit the power autocrats sacrifice by accepting democratization, smoothing along the transition. Miller provides new insights into democratization’s predictors, the limited gains from events like the Arab Spring, the best routes to democratization for long-term stability, and the future of global democracy. Disputing commonly held ideas about violent events and their effects on democracy, Shock to the System offers new perspectives on how regimes are transformed.

Responsive Authoritarianism in China

Responsive Authoritarianism in China PDF Author: Christopher Heurlin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110810780X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
How can protests influence policymaking in a repressive dictatorship? Responsive Authoritarianism in China sheds light on this important question through case studies of land takings and demolitions - two of the most explosive issues in contemporary China. In the early 2000s, landless farmers and evictees unleashed waves of disruptive protests. Surprisingly, the Chinese government responded by adopting wide-ranging policy changes that addressed many of the protesters' grievances. Heurlin traces policy changes from local protests in the provinces to the halls of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing. In doing so, he highlights the interplay between local protests, state institutions, and elite politics. He shows that the much-maligned petitioning system actually plays an important role in elevating protesters' concerns to the policymaking agenda. Delving deep into the policymaking process, the book illustrates how the State Council and NPC have become battlegrounds for conflicts between ministries and local governments over state policies.

Weak Strongman

Weak Strongman PDF Author: Timothy Frye
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691246289
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
"Media and public discussion tends to understand Russian politics as a direct reflection of Vladimir Putin's seeming omnipotence or Russia's unique history and culture. Yet Russia is remarkably similar to other autocracies -- and recognizing this illuminates the inherent limits to Putin's power. Weak Strongman challenges the conventional wisdom about Putin's Russia, highlighting the difficult trade-offs that confront the Kremlin on issues ranging from election fraud and repression to propaganda and foreign policy. Drawing on three decades of his own on-the-ground experience and research as well as insights from a new generation of social scientists that have received little attention outside academia, Timothy Frye reveals how much we overlook about today's Russia when we focus solely on Putin or Russian exceptionalism. Frye brings a new understanding to a host of crucial questions: How popular is Putin? Is Russian propaganda effective? Why are relations with the West so fraught? Can Russian cyber warriors really swing foreign elections? In answering these and other questions, Frye offers a highly accessible reassessment of Russian politics that highlights the challenges of governing Russia and the nature of modern autocracy. Rich in personal anecdotes and cutting-edge social science, Weak Strongman offers the best evidence available about how Russia actually works"--

Why Governments and Parties Manipulate Elections

Why Governments and Parties Manipulate Elections PDF Author: Alberto Simpser
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107311322
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
Why do parties and governments cheat in elections they cannot lose? This book documents the widespread use of blatant and excessive manipulation of elections and explains what drives this practice. Alberto Simpser shows that, in many instances, elections are about more than winning. Electoral manipulation is not only a tool used to gain votes, but also a means of transmitting or distorting information. This manipulation conveys an image of strength, shaping the behavior of citizens, bureaucrats, politicians, parties, unions and businesspeople to the benefit of the manipulators, increasing the scope for the manipulators to pursue their goals while in government and mitigating future challenges to their hold on power. Why Governments and Parties Manipulate Elections provides a general theory about what drives electoral manipulation and empirically documents global patterns of manipulation.