polsic

POLSCI 202

UMASS Boston

Prof. Shuai Jin

Non-Democratic Regimes

How would you define non-democratic regimes?

The opposite of democracy

The two principles of non-democracy

· Citizens are subject to the hierarchical control of the state.

· Leaders are selected and removed from office by a selectorate rather than an electorate.

Figure 4.1 Accountability under Non-Democracy

Types of non-democratic regimes

· Non-democratic regimes are less studied in Political Science than democracies.

· Although typologies provide clear structure of studying non-democratic regimes, they tend to simplify the complexity of the real world.

· Given the diverse forms of non-democratic regimes, it is not easy to put all of them into logically exhaustive and mutually exclusive categories.

· Political scientists have tried to classify non-democratic regimes along multiple dimensions.

Types of non-democratic regimes

· State - society relationship

· Totalitarianism

· Authoritarianism (Autocracy)

· Institutions of non-democratic regimes

· Monarchies

· Single-Party Regimes

· Military Regimes

· Oligarchies

· Theocracies

· Personalistic Regimes

· Identity of the leadership

· Monarchies

· Military regimes

· Civilian non-democratic regimes

· Single-Party Regimes

· Personalistic Regimes

State-society relationship

· Totalitarianism

· A coherent ideology shaping the interests and identities of its citizens

· Extensive efforts to coercively mobilize support for the regime

· Tight restrictions on both social and political pluralism

· Authoritarianism

· No official dominant ideology or no coercive ideological indoctrination

· Demobilizing society and discouraging people from becoming politically active

· Allow some social freedom, but limit political pluralism

Totalitarian Ideology

Ideology: a set of political beliefs or ideas that structures and gives meaning to political interests and that motivates people to act politically in particular ways.

Totalitarian ideology

· Overt

· Systematic

· Institutionalized

· Dogmatic

· Totalizing

Two Totalitarian Ideologies

· Communism

· Marxism

· Leninism

· Economic relations, class struggle, revolution

· communist parties

· Fascism

· Social Darwinism

· Racism

· Extreme Nationalism

· Charismatic, personalistic leaders

· Glorify conquest through warfare, justify the use of violence

Institutions of non-democratic regimes

Four characteristics to distinguish types of non-democratic regimes

· Size of the selectorate

· Criteria for admission to the selectorate

· Rules for selection of leaders

· Rules governing the use of power

Types of non-democratic regimes

· Monarchies other than constitutional monarchies

· Single-Party Regimes

· Military Regimes

· Oligarchies

· Theocracies

· Personalistic Regimes

Compare the non-democratic regimes

· What are the different sources of power behind these different systems?

· Why do leaders claim that they should hold power? What is the source of their claim?

Do monarchies tend to be stable?

A political culture where a leader’s promise to distribute rents to the ruling class is more credible than other types (Menaldo 2012)

· Clear boundary as of who the insiders and outsiders are

· Rules and norms of exactly how regime rents are to be shared within the royal family

· Institutions that allow members of the royal family to monitor the actions of monarch and enforce the norms regarding the distribution of regime rents

Are military regimes more likely to become democracies than other types?

· Fractionalization over economic policies or distribution of regime rents

· Relatively safe exit option because of the military force