Hereditary Rule and Regime Responses to Mass Protests

• In Event: Why Citizens Engage in Protest and Activism

Abstract

Leaders use “carrot” and/or “stick” tactics toward mass protests. But it remains understudied what kind of leaders more likely accommodate rather than repress protests or vice versa. This paper investigates the impact of national leaders’ family ties on their coping with mass protests. We argue that hereditary leaders are more secured and resilient to potential political damages, thus being more tolerant to protests. This effect is more salient in authoritarian regimes. We compile a novel panel dataset of 146 countries from 1990 to 2015 to test the arguments and explore possible nonlinear effects.

Authors

• Yanjun Liu, Peking University

• Zezhong Wang, Peking University