Authoritarianism

Why does Authoritarianism or Democracy prevail

in particular region at a particular time?
Common Characteristics of Authoritarian Regimes:

Wealthy, elite class, closely linked to the ruler or rulers.

Regime tied to structure/function of the economic system.

Maintenance of Status Quo at virtually all cost.

No tolerance for opposition.

Few political and civil liberties.

Military often has a key role in governance.

 Three broad classifications:
Personal dictatorships (tyrannies)
Military oligarchies (juntas)
Dynastic regimes (monarchies)

Personal dictatorships:
Three basic aims (according to Aristotle):

1. to break spirit of subject

2. to breed mutual mistrust
“Tyranny is never overthrown until men can begin to
trust one another.”
3. to make subjects incapable of action
Tyrants usually gain power through force or fraud (coup or
rigged elections).

May start out as military officers, charismatic politicians, or

even religious gurus.

Examples: Saddam Hussein (Iraq), Idi Amin

(Uganda), Castro (Cuba), Manuel Noriega (Panama),
Trujillo (Dominican Republic), Somoza(s) (Nicaragua),
Pinochet (Chile), Charles Taylor (Liberia), Sukarno
(Indonesia), Chavez? (Venezuela).

Tyrants/Dictators often use military to maintain power, but

should not be confused with Military Rule.
Military Regimes:
Only exist where military rule has been
institutionalized
May be a “first among equals,” but rule is not
personalized, and executive may be
replaced from within the institution
Executive power may also be in form of a
junta: group of high ranking officers.

Typically come to power via coup d’etat.

Between 1958 and 1969: 88 military coups in
52 countries
Dynastic Rule/monarchy:

Existed nearly everywhere until the 20th century

Kings, Queens, Emperors, Sultans, Czars, Emirs

Absolute power is hereditary.

Continue to rule in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates,

Brunei, Tonga and a few other places
Key element of totalitarianism: an all encompassing,
monolithic party organization that functions like a state within
a state.
Party possesses the real power
Controlled by an absolute dictator
Decisions made in secret.
Secret police intimidate and mobilize society.

EX: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Soviet Union, China,

perhaps Cuba.
“the Arabs, I think are singled out primarily because,
unlike most other peoples of the developing world….
they have resisted assimilating western ways….or
capitulating to western values….so they are seen as a
threat…and armed with oil and the ability to make war
or peace with Israel….are thought to be in a position to
translate that threat into actions that affect the
industrialized world…..”
--Edward Said
Egypt:
Ottoman/British domination  National Movement
1952: massive popular unrest coup

military junta
led by Gamal Abdel Nasser

dictatorship, cult of personality

Nasser = nationalist, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist

Wanted Egypt free of foreign interference

Also anti-communist

Used a tactic common among dictators: find a

large enemy
Pan-Arabism: Promotion of Arab identity across countries to
unify fragmented Middle East against Western imperialism
and “the evil” of Zionism

For many Egyptians Nasser = hope for self-determination

Iran:
1921-1925: Rheza Kahn became first Shah of the
Pahlavi Dynasty
Program of modernization and secularization.
Ruled with iron fist. Justified?
Abdicated to his son, Mohammad Reza.
Continued modernization (including vote
for women).
But modernization not popular among land
owners and religious leaders.
 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leading
cleric, who opposed Shah’s reforms

Growing resistance to Shah  Shah’s regime became more

repressive

Revolution of 1979,
Ayatollah consolidated power
In short:
The Shah(s) attempted modernization, a chaotic process

=unsettling and often leads to a strong hand to

instill order

When threat to tradition became too great, another strong

hand stepped in and fought for the cause of religion, and
traditional culture
Three Dynamics:
1. Accommodation
2. Co-optation of critical elites
3. Coercion

Accommodation: exploitation of national symbols

Ex: revival of indigenous cultures and traditional values
Goal = to neutralize popular desires for
liberalization/modernization.
Congo  Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (ha!))

Mobutu Sese Seko

nee Joseph Mobutu
Co-optation:
privileges in
exchange for
cooperation
= network of
patron-client Coercion:
relationships. violence/imprisonment in
exchange for lack of
cooperation.
Examples in Africa:

Guinea:
Sekou
Toure,
1958-
1984

Personalistic, repressive rule

Ruling party = the state
Members of other ethnic groups exiled,
imprisoned, or“disappeared”
His death  power vacuum, filled by military
 Uganda:
Idi Amin
1971-1979

Referred to as “Africa’s Adolph Hitler”

Approx. 300,000 people killed

Another 60,000 people of Asian descent forced into

exile
Uganda: Remained under military rule after Amin’s
exile

2001 elections
 Liberia:
Charles
Taylor,
1997-2003

Former rebel leader

Elected president in 1997
Used rape, torture and slave labor to maintain control
His personal wealth estimated as larger than Liberia’s
GDP Currently indicted for war crimes at the Hague.
Taylor on trial

His successor: Johnson-Sirleaf

Provisional authoritarian regimes: ostensibly
transitional, to prepare country for future constitutional
government
Often military regimes
Corrective goals: to rescue nation
Sometimes provisional regimes turn over power to
civilian, constitutional governments
More often they don’t
Ex: Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda
 Ghana:
Success
Story?
Jerry
Rawlings

1979: Led a military coup, then returned country to civilian

government
1982-1992: Retook country as military strongman
1992-2001: Democratically elected “civilian” president
Authoritarian tradition also prevalent in Latin America
Colonial legacy

Greater polarized between rich and poor than in other parts of

world
Polarization generally runs along racial lines

Every country in Latin America has a history of either

personal dictatorship or military dictatorship
Bonapartism: Strong figure (personalistic dictator) who takes
care of problems, gets things done, and instills order

Some suggest that democracy will never take root in

Latin America because anytime things get a little
hairy, a country cries out for a Bonaparte to come to the
rescue
Liberal Dictators of mid to late 19th century:
Modernization at a price
Little long-term planning

Protest or failure to play along  Crackdown

Same tactics of cooptation and coercion
In Latin America = pan o palo (bread or stick) politics

Pan: Same old patron-client relations

Dictator protects elite’s interests in exchange for
support/legitimacy
Dictator must constantly keep bread flowing to
elite  endemic corruption

Palo: same old political repression against opposition

In Latin America at least, Military Regimes are far
more brutal than Personalistic Dictatorships
Military dictatorships tend to use the “common enemy”
tactic (e.g. communism, crime) to suspend civil liberties,
commit arbitrary arrests and/or commit genocide (e.g. villages
“sympathetic” to the enemy)
Since 1950: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras,
Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru,
Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic
(every country but Cuba (a personalistic
dictatorship), Costa Rica and Colombia).
Why is authoritarianism a political option that remains
viable even today?

How does political culture fit in?

How is a country to install the “chaos of democracy”

among a people who have never known it?