New Approaches to Authoritarian Politics: Power and Dissent in Dictatorships

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel features a series of papers that build on diverse strands in political science research to highlight new approaches to the study of authoritarian politics. Research on authoritarianism has undergone a renaissance over the past decade and a half. Rather than relegating the internal workings of these regimes to a “black box”, scholars have begun directly tackling a range of questions crucial for understanding how dictators govern; many of the leading examples focus on how democratic institutions like elections and parties serve strikingly different purposes in non-democratic contexts. However, key questions remain for our understanding of authoritarian politics: What determines who gains access to the ruling coalition, that is, to real power and decision-making authority? How do autocrats mediate between citizens and the state on an everyday basis? When conflict with citizens arises, what explains regimes’ differing responses to those expressions of dissent? How should we best understand public expressions of dissent in authoritarian contexts? The four papers included in this panel address each of these questions in turn, and in doing so, provide insight into how power and dissent are constructed and managed in political environments characterized by repression, informality, and opacity.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 11: Comparative Politics

Individual Presentations

• Networks of Power Under Consolidating Authoritarianism - Noah Buckley, Higher School of Economics

• Disentangling Judicial Corruption: Evidence from Kazakhstan and Russia - Margaret Hanson, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

• Coercive Orders in the Middle East and North Africa - Jean Lachapelle, University of Michigan

• Social Desirability of Dissent in China: An IAT Experiment - Yingnan Joseph Zhou, University of Texas at El Paso; Wenfang Tang, University of Iowa

Chair

• Yuhua Wang Harvard University

Discussants

• Ellen M. Lust University of Gothenburg

• Lisa Blaydes Stanford University