ASTK12295U Course: Authoritarian States: Economic and Political Change

Volume 2014/2015
Education
Bachelorlevel: 10 ECTS
Masterlevel: 7,5 ECTS

SRM - Elective course: 7,5 ECTS
Content

After the massive democratization since 1989, formal attributed of democracy such as holding multiparty elections have become less important in distinguishing societies in which elites are held accountable to their citizens and in which this is not the case. Therefore, this course seeks to explore authoritarian states, their differing rates of survival, change to and from authoritarian states, and the relationship between economics and politics in such societies.

Both the fall of communism and the Arab Spring have exposed systematic differences in the survival of authoritarian regimes. Why do some stable authoritarian states survive international trends towards democratization, while others fall and establish new democracies, hybrid regimes or new, unstable authoritarian regimes? More broadly, how should we think about regime differences in authoritarian societies – for instance between Putin’s Russia, Communist Party-ruled China, the military junta government in Burma or near-anarchy in the so-called Democratic Republic of the Congo after the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997? This course introduces students to a literature concerning variation in the institutional structure of authoritarian states that amongst other things is concerned with the implications of such differences for regime endurance and economic outcomes.

The course will be organized along four main modules:

  1. Authoritarian institutions: elections, parliaments, government cabinets – and their consequences
  2. Agency and leadership: how much do individual leaders matter, and how can political change be effectuated?
  3. Democratic and authoritarian breakdown: sudden and gradual change
  4. Sub-national pockets of authoritarianism after democratic transitions
Learning Outcome

The aim of the course is to bring students up to date with the latest research on why some authoritarian states last and others collapse and how politics function in non-democracies. This also involves examining the consequences of differences in authoritarian institutions for economic development.

While independent empirical analysis is not required to pass the course, the student will be exposed to and gain a strong familiarity with empirical work, quantitative as well as qualitative. Thereby, the student will get a practical feel for fundamental and general problems of empirical work (such as correlation vs causation) and will be exposed to practical methods of circumventing these problems. Overall, the course will improve the student’s ability to critically assess, understand and question empirical work in other academic fields or in professional applications.

The course is relevant for all students with an interest in comparative politics, political economy, international political economy (IPE), political history, economic development, as well as applied large-N/statistical analyses.

Art, David (2012): “What Do We Know About Authoritarianism After Ten Years?” Comparative Politics

Geddes, Barbara (1999). “What Do We Know About Democratization After Twenty Years?” Annual Review of Political Science 2 (1): 115–44.

Geddes, Barbara; Joseph Wright & Erica Frantz (2014). “Autocratic Regimes and Transitions.” Perspectives on Politics. 12(2): forthcoming.

Gibson, Edward L. (2013). Boundary Control: Subnational Authoritarianism in Federal Democracies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jones, Benjamin F. & Benjamin A. Olken (2005). “Do Leaders Matter? National Leadership and Growth Since World War II.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 120 (3): 835–64.

Levitsky, Steven & Lucan Way (2010). Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Linz, Juan J. (1978). The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes: Crisis, Breakdown and Reequilibration. An Introduction. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Magaloni, Beatriz (2006). Voting for Autocracy: Hegemonic Party Survival and Its Demise in Mexico. Cambridge University Press.

Przeworski, Adam (2009). “Conquered or Granted? A History of Suffrage Extensions.” British Journal of Political Science 39 (02): 291–321.

Rueschemeyer, Dietrich; John D. Stephens & Evelyn Huber Stephens (1992). Capitalist Development and Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Svolik, Milan W. (2012). The Politics of Authoritarian Rule. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The course can be taken with a basic grounding in comparative politics and quantitative methodology from the bachelor’s degree in political science and an interest in the origins of cross-country differences in levels of democracy and development. The course, however, is also related to the course ‘Democracy, The State and International Development’ taught by Rasmus Fonnesbæk Andersen & Jacob Gerner Hariri in the fall of 2014, and we will make reference to literature explored therein, although this will not form part of the curriculum or be required for the exam.
The course will be a mix of lectures and discussions of the day’s topics – with the weight on interactive lectures.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Total
  • 28
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
Written assignment
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
  • Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course's goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
  • Grade 7 is given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings
  • Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner