What autocracies say (and what citizens hear): proposing four mechanisms of autocratic legitimation

Dukalskis, Alexander; Gerschewski, Johannes

doi:10.4324/9781351044714-1

Cited by 27 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…To do this, autocrats must have the political and economic capital to pursue a number of strategies that lie at the heart of authoritarian stability, including repression, patronage, propaganda, and the strategic use of institutions to mobilize supporters and co-opt opponents. Authoritarian resilience thus often rests on domestic factors such as the coercive and economic capacity of the state, the presence of certain political institutions (such as ruling parties), and the unifying power of regime legitimation strategies (Bellin, 2004;Dukalskis and Gerschewski, 2017;Levitsky and Way, 2013;Smith, 2005).…”

Section: Peacebuilders As Enablers Of Authoritarianismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enabling autocracy? Peacebuilding and post-conflict authoritarianism in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Billerbeck

Tansey

2019

European Journal of International Relations

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Does peacebuilding shape the regime type of countries where international missions are deployed? Most peacebuilding missions take place in authoritarian contexts, and seek to overcome the legacies of conflict by overseeing transitions to democratic rule; however, most regimes that experience peacebuilding still retain some form of authoritarian rule. In this article, we examine the extent to which international peacebuilding missions contribute to the consolidation of post-conflict authoritarian regimes even when their stated aims involve the promotion of democracy. We argue that international peacebuilders can act as enablers of authoritarianism in host countries. We distinguish this category of behaviour from explicit ‘autocracy promotion’, which implies intentional support to autocracy. Instead, enabling is often an unintended consequence, and we identify two mechanisms through which enabling occurs: by building the capacity of incumbent authoritarian leaders and by signalling a permissive environment for authoritarian behaviour for national actors. We illustrate our argument with the case of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Section: Peacebuilders As Enablers Of Authoritarianismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enabling autocracy? Peacebuilding and post-conflict authoritarianism in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Billerbeck

Tansey

2019

European Journal of International Relations

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“…vis-a-vis a regime [Dukalskis & Gerschewski 2017;Gerschewski 2013Gerschewski , 2018Soest and Grauvogel 2017]. 10 In research on authoritarianism, this distinction is especially important: given the repressive nature of autocracies, it is difficult to tease out whether citizens' compliance is premised on conviction rather than coercion or acquiescence.…”

Section: Authoritarian Legitimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religion in Vichy France: How Meso-Level Actors Contribute to Authoritarian Legitimation

Luft¹

2020

Arch. eur. sociol.

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Research on authoritarian legitimation suggests that rulers seek support through ideological, personalistic, performance-based, and procedural strategies. Typically, however, this work only considers the dynamics of legitimation between rulers and civilians. In contrast, this paper suggests that meso-level actors play a critical role in shaping legitimation from both above and below. Through an historical analysis of the French episcopate’s support for the Vichy regime from 1940 to 1942, I identify four practices that bolstered Vichy’s attempts to accrue legitimacy and simultaneously identify the consequences of these practices for the Church’s relationship with Jews. Public endorsements by the religious authorities for Marshal Pétain, their cooperation with the Vichy administration, the expression of shared values, and common rhetoric all contributed to the regime’s legitimation process while leading to a concomitant decline in the hierarchy’s ties to the rabbinate. These results suggest that attention to meso-level actors brings into relief important dynamics about how legitimation processes unfold in authoritarian settings while simultaneously contributing to research on the Holocaust in France.

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“…Recently scholars have begun in earnest to analyze the legitimation formulas of contemporary authoritarian states, including in case studies (Bray et al 2019;Maerz 2018b;Morgenbesser 2017), cross-national analysis (Kailitz and Stockemer 2017;Dukalskis and Patane 2019), and conceptual essays (Gerschewski 2018;Dukalskis and Gerschewski 2017;van Haldenwang 2017). If there are indeed three "pillars" of autocratic stability-repression, co-optation, and legitimation-then understanding the legitimation claims of autocratic regimes is a useful and important endeavor.…”

Section: Everyday Nationalism and Autocratic Legitimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Everyday Nationalism and Authoritarian Rule: A Case Study of North Korea

Dukalskis

Lee

2020

Nationalities Papers

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This article traces the evolution of “everyday nationalism” in North Korea and assesses its relationship to authoritarian resilience. It argues that coercion and the prospect of coercion play important roles in policing the contours of everyday nationalism. The state is able to infuse nationalism and authoritarian control into everyday life, but the “success” of its efforts has limits. This is due to social changes and the ways that material failures nurtured doubts about the legitimacy of the government among some citizens. It draws on data from North Korean state media, secondary historical literature, and 58 semi-structured interviews with North Koreans living in South Korea.

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What autocracies say (and what citizens hear): proposing four mechanisms of autocratic legitimation

Cited by 27 publications

References 18 publications

Enabling autocracy? Peacebuilding and post-conflict authoritarianism in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Enabling autocracy? Peacebuilding and post-conflict authoritarianism in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Religion in Vichy France: How Meso-Level Actors Contribute to Authoritarian Legitimation

Everyday Nationalism and Authoritarian Rule: A Case Study of North Korea

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