Civilian-Military Relations, Authoritarian Regime Durability and Democratization

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Militaries play a central role in the survival of regimes and the threat of their intervention is always on the horizon in both authoritarian and weaker democratic regimes. Extensive work has been done on the dilemma faced by autocrats vis-à-vis their security forces and strategies regarding coup-proofing. Despite this work, we lack a complete understanding of how these strategies affect subsequent regime change or democratization. This panel explores sources of security sector institutionalization, coherence, strength, or capacity and how these attributes, in turn, promote authoritarian regime durability, democratization, and post-democratization reforms of the security sector.

Sub Unit

• Division 44: Democracy and Autocracy

Individual Presentations

• Dodging a Bullet - Naunihal Singh, U.S. Naval War College

• Rethinking Authoritarian Civil-Military Relations in the Middle East - Risa A. Brooks, Marquette University

• Learning from the Arab Spring: Why Algerians Oppose a Praetorian Military - Sharan Grewal, College of William & Mary

• Bounded Democratization: How and Why Militaries Influence Democratization - Darin Self, Cornell University

Chair

• Jun Koga Sudduth University of Strathclyde

Discussant

• Jun Koga Sudduth University of Strathclyde