The Politics of Authoritarian Rule

Almost all of the many millions of civilians murdered by their governments were murdered by autocratic regimes, and the poorest and least developed countries tend to be autocracies. However, there is enormous variation within the range of autocratic regimes, and far from all autocracies are underdeveloped hellscapes ruled by genocidal regimes. In many autocracies, economies flourish and most citizens live relatively normal lives. Over the past two decades, the importance and variability of autocratic politics has spurred a rapidly growing field of research, providing us with a wealth of data, empirical studies, and fascinating theories about the behavior of dictators and their supporters and opponents. This course will cover the theoretical foundations of this field and delve into selected topics within it. More specifically, the course has two main parts.

First, it will introduce the basics of autocratic politics. Here, we will discuss how to conceptually and empirically distinguish autocracies from democracies, identify the main actors in and the fundamental problems of autocratic politics, and what generally distinguished politics in dictatorships from politics in democracies. In the second part, we will apply and deepen our general understanding of autocratic politics by examining more specific topics within autocratic politics. These may include questions such as how autocracies rise and fall, why autocracies go to war, why some autocracies hold elections, whether autocracy makes countries poorer, how autocracies legitimize themselves and control information flows through propaganda and censorship, or why genocides and other atrocities occur in autocratic regimes.