How Authoritarianism Transforms: A Framework for the Study of Digital Dictatorship
Open accessAbstract
While digital technologies have induced profound global transformations, political scientists often lack the analytical tools to grasp their effects on politics. In particular, digitization's impact on dictatorships remains not only empirically understudied, but seriously under-conceptualized. How do new technological possibilities affect autocratic politics? This contribution starts from the inner logic of authoritarianism rather than from technical innovation. It first maps the ways in which autocrats employ various digital technologies to maintain power. This helps us identify seven core areas where dictatorial politics are transformed by the use of new tools. We delineate the key characteristics of these areas of change and conclude that, in their sum, technologically induced transformations significantly alter the nature of dictatorship if and when it is digitized.
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Foreign investors tend to favour countries with strong property rights protections, which are most commonly found in democracies.
“Second, foreign investors tend to favour countries with strong property rights protec tions, which are most commonly found in democracies. 92”
From Authoritarian collaboration and repression in the digital age: balancing foreign direct investment and control in internet infrastructure (2026) · cites this paper as [92]
The paper’s section on the transnational reach of authoritarian power (section 7; page unavailable) discusses surveillance, repression and recruitment of international tech experts, not foreign investment. Searches for investors and property rights found no passage addressing investors’ preferences or whether property-rights protections are most common in democracies. (LLM, conf=0.75)
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- Authors
- Schlumberger, O., Edel, M., Maati, A., & Saglam, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Tübingen (DE)
- Hochschule für Politik München (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Maati, Ahmed
- Venue
- Government and Opposition
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2023-07-03
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 761-783
- ISSN
- 0017-257X (ISSN-L)
- 1477-7053
- OpenAlex
- W4382982480
- Cited by
- 48
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 2
- FWCI
- 20.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Government and Opposition (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- mediaTUM – the media and publications repository of the Technical University Munich (Technical University Munich) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Cambridge
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Conflict and Governance
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Keywords
- digital dictatorship, authoritarianism, authoritarian regimes, digital technologies, autocratization, regime transformation, political control, surveillance
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