Authoritarian Bureaucracies, Coercion and Social Order

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel presents research from four related book projects on authoritarian bureaucracies, coercive institutions and their effects on social order. Each project is based on original archival data from former authoritarian regimes. The geographic scope of the contributions covers Latin America and the former socialist dictatorships in Central and Eastern Europe. The projects all explore the same fundamental problems of authoritarian delegation to, and control of, subordinates within bureaucracies and coercive agencies. They therefore are closely related and speak to one another, promising lively discussion and theoretical innovation.

Sub Unit

• Division 44: Democracy and Autocracy

Chair

• Christian Davenport University of Michigan

Discussant

• Lisa Blaydes Stanford University

Individual Presentations

• Controlling the Secret Police in Socialist Central and Eastern Europe - Henry Thomson, Arizona State University

• Cadres and Careers. The Management of the GDR's Authoritarian Bureaucracy. - Alexander De Juan, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies; Felix Haass, German Institute of Global and Area Studies; Jan Henryk Pierskalla, Ohio State University

• Why Not Rebel: Repression and the Microfoundations of Political Order - Christopher M. Sullivan, Louisiana State University

• Who Participates in Military Coups? Evidence from Argentina - Adam Scharpf, GIGA - German Institute of Global and Area Studies; Christian Gläßel, Hertie School Berlin