Autocrats can't always get what they want : state institutions and autonomy under authoritarianism / Nathan J. Brown, Steven D. Schaaf, Samer Anabtawi & Julian G. Waller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Nathan J.

Contributor:

Schaaf, Steven D.

Anabtawi, Samer.

Waller, Julian G.

Series:

Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies series.

Emerging democracies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Authoritarianism.

Dictatorship.

Public institutions--Management.

Public institutions.

Autonomy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (318 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Autocrats can not always get what they want

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2024.

Summary:

Authoritarianism seems to be everywhere in the political world--even the definition of authoritarianism as any form of non-democratic governance has grown very broad. Attempts to explain authoritarian rule as a function of the interests or needs of the ruler or regime can be misleading. Autocrats Can't Always Get What They Want argues that to understand how authoritarian systems work we need to look not only at the interests and intentions of those at the top, but also at the inner workings of the various parts of the state. Courts, elections, security force structure, and intelligence gathering are seen as structured and geared toward helping maintain the regime. Yet authoritarian regimes do not all operate the same way in the day-to-day and year-to-year tumble of politics. In Autocrats Can't Always Get What They Want, the authors find that when state bodies form strong institutional patterns and forge links with key allies both inside the state and outside of it, they can define interests and missions that are different from those at the top of the regime. By focusing on three such structures (parliaments, constitutional courts, and official religious institutions), the book shows that the degree of autonomy realized by a particular part of the state rests on how thoroughly it is institutionalized and how strong its links are with constituencies. Instead of viewing authoritarian governance as something that reduces politics to rulers' whims and opposition movements, the authors show how it operates--and how much what we call "authoritarianism" varies.

Notes:

Title from eBook information screen..

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-293) and index.

CC BY-NC-ND

Description based on information from the publisher.

ISBN:

9780472904600

0472904604

OCLC:

1427977219

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access