Running Against, with, or from?: A Typology of Parties in Nondemocracies

• In Event: Political Parties Under Autocracy

Abstract

Multiparty systems are often assumed to be more pluralist, and as such a normative good. Despite this, evidence abounds that political parties can aid autocratization and the preservation of exclusionary regimes. Polity recently scored the United States a 5, rendering it an anocracy, due in large part to the perceived autocratization of the Republican Party. The rise of anti-system and anti-democratic parties and policies across the ‘democratic’ world highlights the need for a typology of political parties in nondemocracies. Scholars of nondemocracies often study political parties, yet the characteristics or categorizations of them are often vague and inconsistent across world regions. In this paper, we propose a typology of political parties in nondemocracies across two distinct factors: 1) level of office-seeking behavior and 2) distinctiveness and clarity of party platform. In democracies, political parties are assumed to seek office through elections and to implement their platforms while in office. In nondemocracies, institutions like parties and elections often take on different roles than in their democratic counterparts. Parties in nondemocracies take on a number of roles. Some are dominant, some are regime-supported, some are fake opposition, while others are actual opposition parties. Some of their ‘purposes’ include spoiling the opposition’s chances, serving as an intermediary with the outside world, and coopting elements within the country. Building from existing scholarship and case studies of political parties in several authoritarian and hybrid regimes, this typology creates a useful categorization of these roles and promotes a more uniform conceptualization. Our goal is to ease comparative scholarship on political parties in nondemocracies across regional and substantive foci.

Authors

• Allison D. Evans, University of Nevada, Reno

• Ian M. Hartshorn, University of Nevada, Reno