POL3409: Introduction to Authoritarian Politics

For much of history, states were largely organized along dictatorial principles. There were the days of emperors and empresses, of kings and queens, of rulers who ruled not because they were elected by their subjects, but because they saw it as their right to reign and were shrewd enough to maintain their position in power. While it is true that monarchies have virtually disappeared from the modern political landscape, the same cannot be said about dictatorships.The purpose of this class is to examine this regime type by introducing students to the current literature on dictatorships. The core questions that will be addressed in the class are as follows: Are dictatorships qualitatively different from democracies or do regimes instead lie somewhere on a democracy-dictatorship continuum? How do dictators survive in power? In the absence of free and fair elections, how does the transfer of power occur in this political setting? In asking these questions, the goal is to go beyond the often simplistic descriptions of dictators as the all-powerful and omnipotent tyrant, the one who does as he pleases without having to fear any repercussions for his actions. Instead, we will learn that the dictator is only one among may other political elites that make up the regime and to survive, much less thrive, he must traverse the terrain of power politics with the utmost care.

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