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DEMOCRATIZATION AND SURVIVAL OF AUTOCRATS - IRS390/IRS690 Fall 2024
Course
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Pelin Musil
In the late 20th century, the world has experienced waves of transition to democracy from autocratic political regimes. While some countries adopted "hybrid forms of regime types" some others achieved "democratic consolidation." In the last ten years, scholars have started noting a reverse global trend called "autocratization," a process observed both in strong and weak democracies in different continents. This course gives a broad overview of the literature explaining the patterns of democratization and autocratization from a comparative perspective. Why do some countries democratize or autocratize while others do not experience any regime change? How do autocracies survive, how do democracies die? In what way do the processes of autocratization or democratization vary across different country contexts and what are some observable common patterns? Asking such questions, this course uncovers the main analytical approaches to democratization and autocratization, such as the institutional, international, socioeconomic, cultural and actor-centered approaches as well as the conceptual and theoretical debates that surround these approaches.
Here is the course outline:
1. Class information and introduction
Sep 5 8:15am .. 11am, 2.03
An overview of the course description, schedule and requirements Introductory Lecture: Why is comparison needed in democratization studies? |
2. The concept of democracy and democratic consolidation
Sep 12 8:15am .. 11am, 2.03
Readings: Schmitter P. / Karl, T. L. (1991): What Democracy is… and Is Not. Journal of Democracy 2(3): 75-88. Schedler, Andreas (1998): What is democratic consolidation? Journal of Democracy, vol. 9, issue 2, pp. 91-107 |
3. Transitions to Democracy and Consolidation of Democracy: Theoretical Explanations I
Sep 19 8:15am .. 11am, 2.03
Readings: Rustow, D. (1970): Transitions to democracy: toward a dynamic model. Comparative Politics (2): 337-363. Geddes, Barbara (1999): What do we know about democratization after twenty years? Annual Review of Political Science 2: 115-144. |
4. Transitions to Democracy and Consolidation of Democracy: Theoretical Explanations II
Sep 26 8:15am .. 11am, 2.03
Levitsky, S., & Way, L. A. (2006). Linkage versus leverage. Rethinking the international dimension of regime change. Comparative politics, pp. 379-400. Bunce, V. (2008). The tasks of democratic transition. ORBIS 52: 25-40. |
5. Transitions to Democracy and Consolidation of Democracy: Theoretical Explanations III
Oct 3 8:15am .. 11am, 2.03
Readings: Carothers, T. (2002). The end of the transition paradigm. Journal of democracy, 13(1), 5-21. O'Donnell, G. (2002). Debating the Transition Paradigm: In Partial Defense of an Evanescent "Paradigm". Journal of Democracy, 13(3), 6-12. Diamond, L., Fukuyama, F., Horowitz, D. L., & Plattner, M. F. (2014). Reconsidering the transition paradigm. Journal of Democracy, 25(1), 86-100. |
6. Hybrid regimes (neither fully democratic nor fully authoritarian)
Oct 10 8:15am .. 11am, 2.03
Readings: Merkel, W. (2004). Embedded and defective democracies. Democratization, 11 (5), 33-58. Levitsky, S., & Way, L. A. (2002). Elections without democracy: The rise of competitive authoritarianism. Journal of democracy, 13(2), 51-65. |
7. How Democracies Die – Part I
Oct 17 8:15am .. 11am, 2.03
The concept of democratic backsliding / autocratization Readings: Bermeo, N. (2016) ‘On Democratic Backsliding’, Journal of Democracy, 27(1), 2016, pp. 5–19 Lührmann, A. & Lindberg, S. (2019) ‘A Third wave of Autocratization is Here: What is New About it?’, Democratization 26 (7): 1095–1113. |
8. How Democracies Die: Part II
Oct 24 8:15am .. 11am, 2.03
The Rise of Populism: A Threat or Corrective to Democracy? Readings: Mudde, C. (2021). Populism in Europe: an illiberal democratic response to undemocratic liberalism (The Government and Opposition/Leonard Schapiro Lecture 2019). Government and Opposition, 56(4), 577-597. Weyland, K. (2020). Populism’s Threat to Democracy: Comparative Lessons for the United States. Perspectives on Politics, 18(2), 389–406. |
9. How Autocratic Regimes Survive: Part I
Nov 7 8:15am .. 11am, 2.03
Reading: Svolik, M. W. (2012). “Introduction: The Anatomy of Dictatorship” in The Politics of Authoritarian Rule. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-17. |
10. How Autocratic Regimes Survive: Part II
Nov 14 8:15am .. 11am, 2.03
Gerschewski, J. (2013). The three pillars of stability: legitimation, repression, and co-optation in autocratic regimes. Democratization, 20(1), 13–38. Kendall-Taylor A., Frantz E. (2016) “When Dictators Die,” Journal of Democracy 27 (4): 159-71. |
11. The Role of Opposition in Autocratic Regimes
Nov 21 8:15am .. 11am, 2.03
Reading: Cleary, M., & Öztürk, A. (2022). When Does Backsliding Lead to Breakdown? Uncertainty and Opposition Strategies in Democracies at Risk. Perspectives on Politics, 20(1), 205-221. Jiménez, M. (2023). Contesting Autocracy: Repression and Opposition Coordination in Venezuela. Political Studies, 71(1), 47–68. |
12. Resilience of Democracy
Nov 28 8:15am .. 11am, 2.03
Reading: Boese, Vanessa A. & Amanda B. Edgell, Sebastian Hellmeier, Seraphine F. Maerz & Staffan I. Lindberg (2021) How democracies prevail: democratic resilience as a two-stage process, Democratization 28(5): 885-907. |
13. Democracy Promotion
Dec 5 8:15am .. 11am, 2.03
Readings: Grimm, S. (2015). European Democracy Promotion in Crisis: Conflicts of Objectives, Neglected External–Domestic Interactions and the Authoritarian Backlash. Global Policy, 6, 73-82. Babayan, N. (2015). The return of the empire? Russia’s counteraction to transatlantic democracy promotion in its near abroad. Democratization, 22(3), 438–458. |
14. Final Exam
Dec 12 9am .. 11am, 2.03
Questions and answers will be submitted on NEO in the classroom. Bring your laptops to the classroom to answer the questions. |