Autocracies and the Control of Societal Organizations

Reny, Marie-Eve

doi:10.1017/gov.2019.7

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 57 publications

(131 reference statements)

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“…In the same vein, Jennifer Gandhi and Adam Przeworski argue that autocratic leaders rely on political institutions, such as legislatures, to "incorporate potential opposition forces, giving them a stake" in regime's survival (Gandhi and Przeworski, 2007). Moreover, Marie-Eve Reny argues that autocratic rulers use the following "four mechanisms to control societal organizations: repression, coercion, cooptation and containment" (Reny, 2019).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Durability of the Paul Biya Regime in Cameroon: A Micro-Level Approach Using Afrobarometer's Round 7 National Survey

Ratsimbaharison

Bongang

2023

Current Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities

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Paul Biya, who has been in power in Cameroon as a prime minister from 1975 to 1982 and as a president since 1982, is now the longest-ruling non-royal national leader of the world. While this durability has baffled many observers worldwide, it has not yet attracted much attention from academia. In fact, the current literature on Cameroonian politics generally focuses on the dictatorial characteristics of the Paul Biya regime, not on its durability. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap in the literature. Adopting a micro-level (or bottom-up) approach, we try to understand why most Cameroonian people are willing to stay under the same ruler for at least two generations. Using the Afrobarometer's round 7 national surveys in Cameroon, we apply simple statistical analyses and machine learning (or predictive analytics) to determine to what extent the Cameroonian people support their president and his regime and to identify the predictors (or determinants) of such support. As a result, we find that, despite the so-called "Anglophone crisis" and Boko Haram's attacks in the North, most Cameroonians, especially the French speakers, still approve of the job performance of Biya. The main factors behind this approval have more to do with their trust in the president himself, the approval of the job performance of their parliament members, and their regional location than with the conduct of the country's political affairs or the management of the national economy.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Durability of the Paul Biya Regime in Cameroon: A Micro-Level Approach Using Afrobarometer's Round 7 National Survey

Ratsimbaharison

Bongang

2023

Current Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities

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“…Autocrats have countless instruments at their disposal to give their would-be challengers a hard time and keep the opposition from becoming too powerful (see e.g. Morgenbesser 2020; Reny 2021; Yilmaz and Shipoli 2021). However, there is a heavy bias in autocracies towards the regime and incumbent parties, not just at the level of rules and resources (Arriola 2013; Rakner and Van de Walle 2009), but also at the level of voters.…”

Section: Party-based Opposition In Competitive Autocraciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Oppositions in Democratic and Authoritarian Regimes: A State-of-the-Field(s) Review

Helms

2022

Gov. & oppos.

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Political opposition has long been one of the most dramatically understudied elements of real-world politics in contemporary democratic and authoritarian regimes. The past decade or so has, however, witnessed an upsurge of new opposition research that begs for a major state-of-the-field review. Interestingly, recent scholarship has focused more on manifestations of opposition in authoritarian and hybrid than in democratic systems, which indicates a latent reconceptualization of political opposition (setting aside older distinctions between regime-loyal opposition and regime-challenging forms of resistance, dissidence and contestation). With a focus on party-based forms of opposition, which have been widely considered to mark the most effective form of opposition, this review article takes stock and highlights key issues for future research as well as some inherent obstacles to the emergence of a more integrated field of cross-regime opposition studies.

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“…Gerschewski identified three ‘pillars’ of stable authoritarianism: first, repression in the form of legal sanctions and bans coupled with intimidation and harassment, second, legitimacy, defined as popular support in the form of obedience and toleration for the regime and, third, co-optation aiming to tie socioeconomic and political actors to the regime (2013). Repression requires an institutional infrastructure to control political and social organisations with the systematic use of prohibitions, legal sanctions, police raids and systematic harassment, and circumscribes the scope of permissive social and political activity to be tolerated and contained (Ghandi and Przeworski, 2007; Reny, 2019). Legitimacy involves actions by authoritarian regimes to demonstrate popular support by combining the use of ideology, such as variations of nationalism, claims of good economic performance and public mobilisation events.…”

Section: The Puzzle Of Autocratisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building an authoritarian regime: Strategies for autocratisation and resistance in Belarus and Slovakia

Trantidis

2021

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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The article explores the conditions under which incumbent leaders in initially competitive political systems manage to offset democratic resistance and establish an authoritarian regime. Autocratisation – the transition from a competitive political system to a regime dominated by a single political force – is a challenging effort for an incumbent and involves interventions in three ‘arenas’ to achieve (a) public legitimation, (b) institutional reforms increasing political repression and (c) mass-scale co-optation. Focusing on Slovakia and Belarus in the 1990s, where autocratisation efforts failed and succeeded respectively, the article finds that co-optation plays a catalytic role in helping the incumbent pass institutional reforms and escalate repression without risking de-legitimation. In Belarus, co-optation engulfed society and the economy whereas, in Slovakia, a socioeconomic environment with greater autonomy from government limited the scope for co-optation. The Slovak opposition was able to find the resources and supporters necessary to fight back against the incumbent.

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Autocracies and the Control of Societal Organizations

Cited by 11 publications

References 57 publications

Understanding the Durability of the Paul Biya Regime in Cameroon: A Micro-Level Approach Using Afrobarometer's Round 7 National Survey

Understanding the Durability of the Paul Biya Regime in Cameroon: A Micro-Level Approach Using Afrobarometer's Round 7 National Survey

Political Oppositions in Democratic and Authoritarian Regimes: A State-of-the-Field(s) Review

Building an authoritarian regime: Strategies for autocratisation and resistance in Belarus and Slovakia

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