UNIT 2: REVOLUTIONARY, TOTALITARIAN, AND AUTHORITARIAN SOCIETIES 2012 – Freedom Hse. Data

WHAT NON-DEMOCRACY IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT What are the essential features? A small group of individuals controls the state. Some of the most common forms are: Theocracies, monarchies, juntas/bureaucratic authoritarianism, personal dictatorships, modern tyrants, competitive oligarchies, fascism Government is not responsible directly or indirectly to the people, but there may be responsibility to a selectorate of some sort Groups external to the power elite are not allowed to meaningfully contest power Civil freedoms/rights are restricted, although this may not apply to some human rights Normally, there isn’t universal “citizenship” in the sense of equal treatment under the rule of law

WHAT NON-DEMOCRACY IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT What is NOT essential to non-democratic regimes (i.e., how do non-democs vary)? They remake society around nondemocratic ideologies and control all private space There is an absence of well-organized elections where the votes are counted correctly; people don’t participate in elections Ban on all political activity and especially any opposition parties An unpopular set of leaders that must use high levels of violence against lots of people to stay in power (populism, corporatism, clientelism and patronage, and illberal “democracy”) The military or a dictator is in control of all power; leaders are not rotated or removable No capitalist economy or rule of law; have high levels corruption to the point of being kleptocracies (modernizing tyrants often focus on these) They always adopt policies to make society more unequal (populists) They are aggressive enemies to liberal democracies like the United States They are something that every established democracy should fear becoming if the wrong people gain power (Only in Venezuela) So, what is the difference bw totalitarian and authoritarian systems?

WHAT NON-DEMOCRACY IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT What is the difference bw totalitarian and authoritarian systems? We’ve just covered some of this, but let’s summarize: What is the defining feature of totalitarian regimes? Are they all communist? (Theocracies, fascism) In what sense are they “egalitarian” (no individualism… human nature is to be reformed to meet the ideals stressed in the central ideology) What do they have in common, and how do they stay in power? Propaganda around a joyous future Cult of leadership Villains and history Mass violence Why do the fall apart? Why don’t they typically become democratic?

WHAT CAUSES REVOLUTIONS? What is Karl Marx’s theory of revolution? How did VI Lenin modify it? What can social psychology tell us about revolution? (relative deprivation, cognitive dissonance, & j-curves) When do elites and the intl. community allow revolution? Failed societies, war cause “regime decay” (Theda Skocpol) Why do so many revolutions—once started—fail even if the conditions seem perfect? You need an alternative organization that can operate as a state… That is “alternative sovereignty” Why do some conservatives (classical!), like Samuel Huntington, see democratization as a cause of revolution. Is there any evidence to support his views? Russia, China, and Iran

THE END OF IDEOLOGY (AND THUS REVOLUTIONS)? What is convergence theory? Is the history of utopian revolution over? Is the age of democratic revolution beginning? Why is relative deprivation increasingly visible even as the developing world is finding prosperity Why are their wider rich-poor gaps within countries, and is that really a bad thing? Global communications and revolutionary organization Mass consumption and perceived deprivation How might globalization and democratization strengthen revolutionaries? Traditional hierarchies threatened Accelerated urbanization Self-determination & the number of weak states