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Begin New Search Topic Dictatorship Publication Year within 25 Years

1. Theory of developmental dictatorship

Author:
Hyungmin Park
Publication Date:
06-2024
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP)
Abstract:
This article studies the developmental motives of a dictator under the modernisation hypothesis. He faces a trade-off between pursuing higher future gains with growing threats from the rise of the middle class and accepting lower gains for a more stable regime. I show that his optimal strategy is to invest in an underdeveloped economy for higher future returns. As the economy matures, investment declines as the focus shifts toward maintaining the regime. Without this threat, the economy regresses or fully develops depending on the profitability of investment and regime stability. My framework helps explain empirical puzzles about why some underdeveloped autocracies achieve faster economic growth. I also analyse how steady state varies by the length of future horizon under consideration. Contrary to Olson (1993)’s traditional theory that longer horizon concern makes high development, I find that a farsighted decision-making leads to a lower steady state.
Topic:
Economy, Dictatorship, Modernization, Decision-Making, and Regime Durability
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Chile’s New Constitutional Process Shifts to the Right

Author:
Cathy Schneider and Sofía Williamson-García
Publication Date:
02-2023
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
Abstract:
Hollowed-out political parties and the legacy of dictatorship once again leave Chile’s constitutional process hindered by a crisis of representation.
Topic:
Constitution, Domestic Politics, Representation, and Dictatorship
Political Geography:
South America and Chile

3. Forum on Rahul Rao’s Out of Time, Part I: Queer Mutations and Repressions

Author:
Emerson Maione and Renan Quinalha
Publication Date:
09-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Contexto Internacional
Institution:
Institute of International Relations, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Abstract:
In this Forum, six scholars reflect on Rahul Rao’s recent book Out of Time: The Queer Politics of Postcoloniality from other geographies, themes and radical possibilities. Part I offers dialogues with Out of Time from Trump’s USA and Brazil’s ‘hetero-military’ dictatorship and Portuguese colonial roots. Emerson Maione and Renan Quinalha explore how Rao’s elaborations of homonationalism, homocapitalism, homoromanticism and ‘pink-washing’ more generally travel in new contexts and how the ‘fetishization of law’ can mislead investigations of queer-, homo- and transphobias.
Topic:
Decolonization, LGBT+, Repression, Dictatorship, Queer Theory, Decriminalization, Colonization, and Homonationalism
Political Geography:
Brazil, South America, North America, and United States of America

4. Quo Vadis, Belarus?

Author:
Zoran Meter
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO)
Abstract:
Year 2021 was one of the most turbulent for Belarus since its independence after the collapse of the USSR. In the West Belarus is sometimes called the “European North the global economic crisis in 2008 without too many problems and internal turmoil. Belarus has also successfully overcome problems with its neighbor the Russian Federation caused by Korea” and its longtime president Alexander Lukashenko, whom the West no longer recognizes, is dubbed “Europe’s Last Dictator.” Although this country is still to a large extent dug in its communist past, it has overcome disputes related to the content and dynamics of the implementation of the establishment of a Federal State between Belarus and Russia to which they previously committed.
Topic:
Economics, Governance, Leadership, Dictatorship, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Europe and Belarus

5. Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD): Reflection and Resistance against Dictatorial Regime in Punjab

Author:
Yawar Haroon and Mahboob Hussain
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
The Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) emerged when General Zia-ul-Haq could not fulfill the promise of conducting elections and prolonged his dictatorial regime instead of fulfilling his promise. He drew his power from a controlled system of government. In those circumstances, the democrats formed an alliance against the martial law administration. They neglected their internal differences and focused on their goal to achieve freedom of expression and liberty which was snubbed by the regime. MRD main demands were the restoration of democracy, under 1973 Constitution, conduction of election and handing over the system of administration to representatives of people. MRD continued struggled till the end of dictatorial regime in 1988.
Topic:
History, Democracy, Dictatorship, and Zia-ul-Haq
Political Geography:
Pakistan, South Asia, and Punjab

6. Contemporary Challenges to Global Democracy

Author:
Erica Frantz
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Today’s democracies are under threat. According to the watchdog organiza- tion Freedom House, each year of the past decade has seen a decline in global democracy.1 Importantly, many of these declines have occurred in wealthier and more established democracies, which scholars have typically considered resistant to democratic backsliding. In some instances, these erosions have left democracies weakened, such as in India and the United States; however, in other instances, they have led to complete democratic collapse and the emergence of authoritarianism, such as in Turkey and Serbia.
Topic:
Governance, Democracy, Dictatorship, Political Crisis, and Autocracy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

7. A Glimpse of Freedom: Allied Occupation and Political Resistance in East Germany

Author:
Luis Martinez, Jonas Jessen, and Guo Xu
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC)
Abstract:
This paper studies costly political resistance in a non-democracy. When Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945, 40% of the designated Soviet occupation zone was initially captured by the western Allied Expeditionary Force. This occupation was short-lived: Soviet forces took over after less than two months and installed an authoritarian regime in what became the German Democratic Republic (GDR). We exploit the idiosyncratic line of contact separating Allied and Soviet troops within the GDR to show that areas briefly under Allied occupation had higher incidence of protests during the only major episode of political unrest in the GDR before its demise in 1989 - the East German Uprising of 1953. These areas also exhibited lower regime support during the last free elections in 1946. We argue that even a “glimpse of freedom" can foster civilian opposition to dictatorship.
Topic:
Democracy, Occupation, World War II, Dictatorship, and Resistance
Political Geography:
Europe, Germany, and East Germany

8. The Inversion of Human Rights in Brazil

Author:
Jacob Blanc
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
Abstract:
A dictatorship-era torturer is suing one of his victims in Brazil in a stark reminder of how Bolsonaro emboldens rights abusers.
Topic:
Human Rights, Torture, Authoritarianism, State Violence, and Dictatorship
Political Geography:
Brazil and Latin America

9. 2020 Country Brief: North Korea

Author:
Third Way
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Third Way
Abstract:
There may be no brutal dictator who has fared better under Trump than North Korea’s butcher, Kim Jong-un. There are two essential issues in the US-North Korea relationship: Ending the nuclear threat North Korea poses globally; and Ending the threat North Korea poses to its South Korean neighbors. To Donald Trump’s credit, he tried unorthodox methods to address both. To his detriment and that of the entire free world, he was so unprepared and outfoxed that North Korea won all the chips. To try mitigating North Korea’s nuclear threat, President Donald Trump held two summits with North Korean Chairman King Jong-un. At the first summit in Singapore, the agreement President Trump signed amounted to absolutely nothing. His own national security advisor, John Bolton, called it “badly flawed.”1And the North Korean tyrant, Kim Jong-un, got the legitimacy he craved. A second summit was equally as weak. While initial observers had high hopes for diplomacy with the North, Trump was simply unprepared and outplayed. North Korea changed nothing about its behavior. Two failed summits showed that the two sides will never be able to come to an agreement under President Trump to lift sanctions in exchange for denuclearization. In fact, as a result of the Trump Administration’s failures, North Korea has continued to advance its nuclear weapons and missile programs, and has stated that diplomacy with President Trump has “faded into a nightmare.”2 Ultimately, negotiations with North Korea are the best way to reduce the threat the country's nuclear weapons pose to the United States and its allies in the long term. But, given past experience, negotiations must focus on producing specific, measurable, and verifiable reductions in North Korea’s nuclear capability before further accommodations are made. A smart and tough deal with North Korea would include: Specific and immediate steps to reduce and ultimately eliminate North Korea’s inventory of long-range ballistic missiles capable of hitting parts of the United States; A path to reducing and eliminating its arsenal of nuclear weapons; A verification regime to ensure North Korea does not undermine a deal by continuing its long history of violating nuclear agreements; and Security guarantees coordinated with US allies, especially South Korea and Japan. Past US presidents offered North Korea a choice: they can have either a nuclear weapon or an economy, but not both. Unlike past presidents, however, Trump gave Kim Jong-un the legitimacy he craved and received nothing in return. While repeatedly fawning over him, Trump elevated the tyrant Kim on the world stage, claimed a victory lap for signing a weak and vague agreement that does little to address the nuclear threat from North Korea, and then walked away with nothing after capitulating to Kim’s demand for a second summit. To further complicate matters, uncertainty around Kim’s health and the leadership structure in North Korea has exacerbated the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula and laid bare the need for tough negotiators who know how to draft a real agreement, not a press release.
Topic:
Military Strategy, Authoritarianism, Leadership, Conflict, and Dictatorship
Political Geography:
Asia and North Korea

10. A Lioness Turned into a Fox. A Political Realist View of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi

Author:
Michal Lubina
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Polish Political Science Yearbook
Institution:
Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:
For long Aung San Suu Kyi has been considered a global hero. After 2012, however, that deification has given way to condemnation. Suu Kyi was a hero; a hero who after 2012 betrayed the alleged values. The reason of this radical change of perception is the fact that until 2012 Suu Kyi had been considered a personification of idealism in politics and for “betraying” these values she has been criticized since then. This article claims that both mentioned discourses on Suu Kyi miss the point and are being built on wrong assumptions. Contrary to popular belief Suu Kyi has always been a politician; more: a realist politician. Therefore, the aspects that should be questioned are not whether is she a good or bad one or whether she turned away from the people or even whether she has changed or not, etc. The question is, whether she is a skillful politician – she must be judged by the ethic of responsibility. Suu Kyi’s tactics evolved according with changing political circumstances – she combined two archetypes of political behavior: that of a “lion”, or rather “lioness” and that of a “fox”. That itself shows one thing: Suu Kyi possesses prudence, the ultimate political value.
Topic:
Governance, Authoritarianism, Democracy, Leadership, and Dictatorship
Political Geography:
Asia, Burma, and Myanmar