1. Global Comparative Politics (6)
Luca Verzichelli
University of Siena
Master Program
Public and Cultural Diplomacy (LM-81)

2. Non-Democratic regimes
Important part in classic works on politics, from the Aristotle’s typology
Important topic in comparative political science
The democratic failure: important topic in XX political debate
The totalitarian-authoritarian approach

3. Juan Linz: Definitions of Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism
Political systems with limited, not responsible, political pluralism, without elaborate and guiding ideology, but with distinctive mentalities, without extensive nor intensive political mobilization, except at some points in their development, and in which a leader or occasionally a small group exercises power within formally ill-defined limits but actually quite predictable ones
Totalitarianism
Political systems without any political pluralism, strong guiding ideology, extensive political mobilization, a charismatic leader/founder and a strong ideological single party. In these regimes the ruling class can have an extensive recourse to political violence and there is non predictable limits to the use of political coercion
According to Linz, Only Sultanic regimes or Patrimonial regimes can be considered as further examples of contemporary (but traditional) non democratic regimes

4. Linz and the others The theoretical discussion on Totalitarian and Authoritarian regimes

5. Another classic discussion: Types of military rules

6. Recent contributions
Social complexity and non-institutional-centred theories
Rational theories: principal-agent and social coalitions
Semis, less-than-democratic, hybrid regimes
Semi-democratic or semi-Authoritarian (Ottaway 2003)
Non presidential totalitarism (Popular democracies, post-Maoism …)

7. The calculus of party usurpation of power (Brooker 2013)

8. A new stream in the study of non democratic regimes
Why a return of non-democratic practices (failure of democracy?)
Interest in modern democratic governance
Interest in comparing old and new forms of non democratic regimes
Media and new authoritarianism
A XXI century dictatorship format (Brooker)

9. Failure of the state and new non-democratic regimes
Weak states or “non states” failed to achieve legitimacy; Other failed to penetrate society, (control over political actors and social units at local level or intermediary level). Other had been only partially successful in extracting resources, by taxes and other means, from its largely peasant economy
The failure of “strong” states like non-democratic communist regimes (URSS, Jugoslavia) also determined the raise of new units and potential non democratic regimes.

10. Huntington: third wave of democratization but… signs of reversal
1. authoritarian regimes’ increasing legitimacy problems, including economic performance legitimacy; 2. Social effects of the 1960s rapid economic growth, and expansion of the middle classes; 3. changes in the political attitudes of the Catholic Church; 4. changes in external actors’ policies (i.e. the end of Soviet Union military action to maintain communist rule in Eastern Europe; 5. ‘snowballing’ or demonstration effects (CEE – Middle East …). However, where these conditions are not present some new form of authoritarism can emerge. Different from XX century regimes but still anti-democratic …

11. Levitsky & Way (2010): an assesment of post cold-war transitions
Why democratization did non work?
About 35 new non democratic regimes emerged in the early 1990s. Among them, Cambodia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Russia, Serbia, Taiwan, Ukraine, Zimbabwe
Interpreting these regime as a sort of mid-way: competitive authoritarianism OR hybrids
Western Linkage vs. Western leverage. Different effects

12. Countries covered by L&W2010
6 in Eastern Europe:
Albania, Croatia,
Macedonia,Romania,
Serbia, Slovakia
6 in the former URRS:
Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine
14 in Africa:
Benin, Botswana, Cameroon,
Gabon, Ghana, Kenya,
Madagascar, Malawi,
Mali, Mozambique,
Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia,
Zimbabwe
3in Asia
Cambodia, Malaysia,
Taiwan;
6 countries in the Americas:
Dominican Republic, Guyana,
Haiti,Mexico, Peru,
Nicaragua

13. Competitive authoritarianism and Full Authoritarianism

14. Outcomes (2008) Low linkage regions: former Soviet Union, Africa, Asia
High linkage regions: Americas and Eastern Europe
Remarkable exceptions and «negative effects»
Very unpredictable cases and the «Arab exceptionalism»