Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization

“Following Brownlee (2007), Case (2009) Ufen (2009) and Levitsky and Way (2010), we classify the political regime in Malaysia as competitive authoritarianism, thereby implying that a meaningful level of political competition and contestation exists, which can also be used by civic associations to…”

“Scholars argue that parties are valuable institutions because they are particularly well suited to manage intra-elite conflict and allow dictators to make credible inter-temporal power-sharing deals (Boix and Svolik 2013; Brownlee 2007; Magaloni 2008; Reuter 2017; Svolik 2012).”

“…institutions such as elections, legislatures and parties in autocracies and the importance of these institutions for the reproduction of authoritarian rule (Schedler 2002, 2006, Brownlee 2007, Gandhi and Przeworski 2007, Gandhi 2008, Magaloni 2008, Wright 2008a, Magaloni and Kricheli 2010).”

“CARs are political regimes that combine formal democratic institutions — an executive and a legislature elected in multiparty elections with universal suffrage — with systematic recourse to informal (when not illegal) practices that skew the playing field in the ruling party’s favor, such as government control of the…”

“Although democracies are consolidating in parts of Latin America, South Asia and Africa, many countries in, but not limited to, the global South remain authoritarian (Brownlee, 2007).”

“The growing empirical and theoretical literature on nondemocratic institutions documents their limitations as true tools of democratic accountability (Blaydes, 2010; Brownlee, 2007; Gandhi, 2008; Levitsky & Way, 2010; Lust-Okar, 2005; Magaloni, 2006).”

“First, the institutionalist literature argues that institutional variation between regimes can account for differences in survival (Brownlee, 2007; Gandhi, 2008; Geddes, 1999; Hadenius & Teorell, 2007).”

“…the extent to which it is the institutional arrangements of regimes (Geddes 2000; Hadenius and Toerell 2007; Gandhi and Przeworski 2006), their ruling coalitions (Herb 1999; 2005b), or the strength of dominant parties (Brownlee 2007) that helps to determine the resilience of authoritarian regimes.”

“…the article is an attempt to move beyond a dominant overly state-centric literature, with its elite-bias, which focuses on the role and strategic choice of elites and political leadership in understanding political transitions (see, for example, Brownlee 2007, Lust-Okar 2005, Rutherford 2008).”

“Since Huntington (1970) scholars have viewed strong ruling parties as structures capable of uniting fissiparous social forces and elites Brownlee (2007) argues that strong ruling parties ‘bridle elite ambitions and bind together otherwise fractious coalitions.”

“Multi-party elections could stabilize non-democracies through enabling co-optation (Magaloni 2006; Gandhi 2008), increasing domestic and international legitimacy (Schedler 2002a, 2006), or revealing important information about the opposition (Brownlee 2007; Malesky 2011).”

“…clearly demonstrates that, depending on their origins and external factors, institutions such as elections, parliaments, parties, and courts may stabilize but also destabilize autocratic regimes (Osborne and Rubinstein 1994, Smith 2005, Brownlee 2007, Ginsburg and Moustafa 2008, Lindberg 2009).”

“With only a small handful of conceivable exceptions, no other regime on earth has been so intransigently authoritarian in the face of highly intense and persistent internal and external pressures for political change.2 Hence, when newly inaugurated 1 Brownlee, 2007.”

“Researchers studied their origins (Levitsky and Way, 2002; Ottaway, 2003; Schedler, 2002), theorised about their functioning (Blaydes, 2008; Brownlee, 2007; Gandhi and Przeworski, 2006; Lust-Okar, 2006; Magaloni, 2006), and analysed their endurance (Boix and Svolik, 2008; Brownlee, 2009; Epstein et…”

“Even if these elections are not fully democratic, electoral processes can reveal information (Brownlee, 2007; Gandhi & Lust-Okar, 2009).14 Gaining power through an election signals information about the relationship between the leader and the opposition movement more generally.15 Successful Table…”

“Major explanatory factors in such studies include the political institutions of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Arjomand 2009; Bashiriyeh 2005; Brownlee 2007; Brumberg 2001; Gheissari and Nasr 2006; Keshavarzian 2005; Tezcur 2010); the country’s class structure (Bashiriyeh 2006); and the ideology and…”

“…it an ideal setting for this research: multiparty elections in which incumbents enjoy an unfair advantage; extensive state economic involvement; and a government that has stifled access to independent information (Brownlee 2007; Levitsky and Way 2010; Magaloni 2006; Reuter and Turovsky 2014).”

“A burgeoning literature broadly agrees political parties are often a linchpin of the survival of any such regime (Brownlee 2007; Geddes 1999; Huntington 1968; Svolik 2012).”

“Boix and Svolik (2013), Brownlee (2007), Gandhi (2008), and Svolik (2012).”

“…have sought the origins of autocratic survival in formal political institutions: single party regimes or national legislatures populated by regular elections (Lust-Okar 2006; Brownlee 2007; Gandhi 2008; Blaydes 2008; Magaloni 2008; Slater 2010; Svolik 2012; Geddes, Wright, and Frantz 2018).”

“…is perhaps most common, and, when analyzed through the lens of interest group politics, can be most readily understood as undergirding the process of constitution-making through “pacted democratization” (Higley & Gunther, 1992; O’Donnell & Schmitter, 1986, and Brownlee, 2007, for example).”

“Mass organizations, political parties, elections and parliaments have also served to co-opt political opponents (amongst others, see, Ayubi 1995, Blaydes 2010, Brownlee 2007, Lust-Okar 2005, Posusney and Penner Angrist 2005, Schlumberger 2007).”

“Brownlee (2007), King (2007: 433– 59), Lust (2009), and Blaydes (2011: 2–5) identified political institutions in Egypt and Tunisia (that is, hegemonic party apparatuses, legislatures, and elections) as critical regime supports that helped manage internal divisions and co-opt potential challengers.”

“These include the relationship between nominally competitive elections, inequality and the robustness of security forces in contributing to authoritarian resilience or vulnerability (Bunce and Wolchik 2010: 49–50; Brownlee, 2007: 32; Gandhi 2008; Gandhi and Przeworski 2007).”

“Parties help dictators to facilitate cooperation within the ruling coalition by solving commitment and monitoring problems (Boix and Svolik, 2013; Brownlee, 2007; Gehlbach and Keefer, 2011; Magaloni, 2008; Reuter, 2017; Svolik, 2012) and channel benefits of state power to elites (Greene, 2007,…”

“As several scholars have argued, discontent citizens in the Arab world often do not find a viable opposition candidate on the ballot (Brownlee, 2007; Lust-Okar, 2009; Posusney, 2002; Sadiki, 2009).”

“Empirically, the wager has paid off for dictators: Authoritarian elections are associated not with democratic transition (Brownlee, 2007) but with regime longevity (Geddes, 1999).”

“As a space for discussion, parties reconcile different and often competing interests (Brownlee 2007), in turn discouraging intra-party struggles and fostering stability.”

“On the whole, the Burmese military regime has defied conventional wisdom among political scientists that ‘military rule is the shortest form of authoritarian regime in the developing world’ (Brownlee 2007: 29).”

“This is in line with other large-n studies on electoral authoritarianism (Miller 2015; Knutsen et al. 2017; Brownlee 2007, 2009).”

“Yet, despite these disadvantageous conditions, the reform movement in Iran has been comparatively strong throughout the regime span and politics have been much more contested than those in the regimes conceptualized as simulating pluralism (Brownlee 2007: 157–81).”

“Although the current outlets for social mobilization are unlikely to represent a threat to the dominance of the military ruling class in society (Brownlee 2007: 217–18), the presence of Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD in parliament should encourage a continuation of the relaxation of political…”

“Most recent work that tackles this heterogeneity focuses on the strategies and sophistication of leaders, including leaders’ choices of institutional rules (Magaloni 2006, 2008; Brownlee 2007; Levitsky and Way 2010; Way 2015).”

“…this paper lends further support to the comparative finding that single party states appear to have the most resilient form of authoritarianism (Brownlee 2007; Geddes 1999) and suggests the intriguing possibility that some of the historically conservative monarchies of the region may…”

“Brownlee (2007) argues that elections do not change long-term outcomes in authoritarian regimes, but Tucker (2007) and Bunce & Wolchik (2006a) show that elections can be revolutionary events.”

“55 Brownlee 2007.”

“A growing body of scholarly literature in the field of comparative politics seeks to delineate the dynamics of semi-authoritarian regimes (Brownlee, 2007; Ottaway, 2003; Smith and Zeigler, 2008; Zakaria, 1997).”

“In this sense, the election might be seen more as a symptom of problems than a cause (Brownlee, 2007, p. 10 and p. 32; Ottaway, 2003, pp. 177–178).16 Nevertheless, it is possible that some reform of the political system, including its electoral aspects, may be seen as an answer to the problem.”

“In his ‘historical–institutional’ account, Jason Brownlee (2007) documents UMNO’s deploying these strategies of single-party dominance in the case of Malaysia.”

“…co-opt the opposition either through the distribution of economic transfers and rents (Wintrobe, 1998; Bueno de Mesquita et al., 2003) or through institutions that produce credible inter-temporal power-sharing deals with potential elite opponents (Lazarev, 2005; Brownlee, 2007; and Magaloni, 2008).”

“…explored this possibility by trying to think like a dictator, thus opening the way to a number of studies on the endurance of authoritarianism (Brownlee, 2007) and the use of instruments such as elections to guarantee unfree competition, as well as the persistence of undemocratic rule…”

“Third, these parties co-opt elected opposition representatives, resorting even to paying them large sums of money to cross over (see, for example, Greene 2007 and Brownlee 2007).”

“Some key problems that leaders need to solve to stay in power are being able to manage intra-elite competition (Blaydes, 2010; Brownlee, 2007), distribute patronage (Lust-Okar, 2006), buy off potential challengers (Gandhi, 2008; Wintrobe, 1990), make promises credible (Gehlbach and Keefer, 2011;…”

“Since the turn of the century, there has been a renewed interest in perceptions of democracy and the durability of authoritarianism (see Brownlee, 2007; Diamond, Correspondence Address: School of Politics and International Relations, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.”

“Authoritarian elections have been shown to benefit rulers in a variety of ways, including co-optation of the opposition (Gandhi and Przeworski 2006, 2007), information-gathering and managing elite disagreements (Blaydes 2011; Brownlee 2007; Lust-Okar 2006; Magaloni 2006; Reuter and Robertson 2015).”

“Singapore and Malaysia are among the main cases used in this literature to demonstrate how elites purposefully utilise these institutions to consolidate their hold on power and to maintain authoritarian regimes (see Geddes 2003; Brownlee 2007; Gandhi 2008).”

“Brownlee (2007) argues that autocrats can maintain stability if they liberalize but do not follow through with democratization.”

“…parties and alternating governments constitute essential and indispensable features of a democracy, the study of political parties has been accorded considerable space in the literature on EA (Brownlee, 2007; Gandhi, 2008; Gandhi & Przeworski, 2007; Langston, 2006; Magaloni, 2006; Walle, 2006).”

“Gandhi and Przeworski (2007) and Gandhi (2008) have addressed the function of formal representative institutions within a dictatorship; Brownlee (2007) has focused on the political logic of ruling parties; Schedler (2006) has dissected the political dynamics of what he termed ‘electoral…”

“Single-party regimes are thought to be durable because they are able to manage elite conflict, regularize succession and co-opt potentially threatening elites (Brownlee, 2007).”