ASOK15222U Authoritarian Regimes and Contentious Politics

The course explores the relationship between authoritarianism and contentious politics. Authoritarian regimes remain ubiquitous in our modern global world. This class asks why some authoritarian regimes are so successful at preserving stability and avoiding a transition into democracy, often despite a rise in contentious politics. Theoretically, we should not see a lot of protest or contentious politics under authoritarianism for several reasons, including a lack of recognition of basic rights, a lack of institutional mechanisms used to seek redress, the minimization or elimination of civil society, the exclusion of workers and citizens from formal politics, and the threat of serious repression for participating in contentious politics.  The seminar explores why and how this challenges our understanding of the dynamics between authoritarianism and contentious politics.

The course reviews contemporary understandings of authoritarian regimes, different variants and explores associated mechanisms of repression and control. It also reviews what constitutes "contentious politics" and how the concept is operationalized in the context of authoritarian regimes.  Here we look at how the dominant theoretical frameworks of contentious politics including grievance-centered analysis, resource mobilization theory and political process theory, have been used or modified to shed light on dynamics of contentious politics under authoritarianism and regime change.  The second section of the course uses China as a case study to engage existing theories and debates in the literature. In China, a stable authoritarian regime has persisted in spite of increasing contentious politics, creating a  puzzles theorists. The class purviews the landscape of contentious politics in China, looking at both the structure and form. It also examines regime responses and resilience, raises questions about the relationship between contentious politics and regime change.