WHAT MAKES A REGIME UNDEMOCRATIC? What are categories and ideal types? How many forces should hold power in a society?: one, a handful, many? Is having anything less than power by the people inherently bad? Are there situations where it makes sense to have non-dem? What separates out good governments from bad ones? Maybe the main criteria isn’t whether they are not democratic vs. not – The results in a countries trajectories?:Despots vs. Modernizing tyrants and party states – The degree to which negative and/or positive rights are protected? – The means of exercising power? Violence versus its alternatives – Whether rules are arbitrary or not (equal citizenship) – Whether government serves itself or everyone Do authoritarian regimes ever hold elections (usually, these days) and/or protect rights (sometimes) and liberties (no)? What are the main types of authoritarian regimes?: Autocracies (inc., monarchies), oligarchies, competitive oligarchies (inc., single party states), bureaucratic authoritarianism (inc. some juntas)

WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE LIVE WITH UNDER AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES? Why is author. the most common type of regime throughout history? What does democracy need to flourish? Are there situations in which authoritarian regimes are justified or even best?: External security, ethnic divisions, modernizing tyrants, tutelage, & strategic resource control Can these regimes be “legitimate” and even popular? How do natural resources (a curse?) impact good and bad rulers? (state capitalism vs. lootocracies) How likely are these regimes to persist over time without people revolting? Evidence from Russia and China How have authoritarian regimes evolved in recent decades to survive at least in the short-term (Andreas Schedler)? Legislatures, judiciary, elections, civil society, media

WHAT ARE TOTALITARIAN REGIMES? Why is totalitarianism a 20 th C phenomenon? G. Orwell Why so much violence by everyday people? What kind of ideology? Scapegoats & utopias Why cults of leadership? Why propaganda and mass mobilization? Why politicization of the private sphere? How is a revolution institutionalized? Cells, purges, secret police, schools, & parties Why do these regimes tend to be so short-lived? Why are they less likely to evolve into democratic regimes than authoritarian governments?

SO WHAT IS THE IRANIAN REGIME? In what sense was it initially totalitarian and why was its totalitarian period “still born”? What is “factionalized” authoritarianism, and what does it look like in Iran? What does it look like in Mexico? Is there such a thing in Russia? Is there any way in which Iran is democratic? Does this description still fit today (a decade after this article was published)