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Department of Political and Social Change · ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
Much of human history took place under authoritarian rule. Even today, many authoritarian governments play important roles on the world stage. This course is designed to examine various important aspects in authoritarian regimes: their differences with democracies, why they emerge and break down, how they deal with challenges of leadership change, what institutions they adopt, why some dictatorships fail to create economic growth but some can, and the theories that explain these outcomes. During the course, we will use contemporary events, historical case studies, and statistical data to examine real-world cases. The goals of this course are to introduce students to the systematic study of authoritarian politics; to deepen their understanding of political changes, dynamics, and developments in non-democracies; and ultimately to help them critically assess theories about authoritarian politics and to engage in independent analysis of dictatorships in their academic or professional careers.
Class Participation
Learning outcomes 3, 4, 5
Oral Presentation of a Self-selected Piece of Reading
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3
Short Essay (Book review related to authoritarian politics)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Oral Presentation: a case study about key political institutions in an authoritarian regime
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Long Research Essay (A Research Paper)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Workload is approximately 120 hours consisting of 12 x 3 hour seminars; 4 hours weekly reading and preparation for seminars; 4 hours weekly reading and preparation for research essays. There are two oral presentations, one mid-term short essay, and one final long essay. Other Information We live in an era with strong authoritarian and illiberal headwinds. This course not only examines these trends, but also provides a theoretical framework for understanding differences in authoritarian regimes both across history and across regions of the world.
Svolik, Milan W. 2012. The Politics of Authoritarian Rule. New York: Cambridge University Press. Preliminary Reading Przeworski, Adam, Michael E. Alvarez, Jose Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando Limongi. 2000. Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the World, 1950-1990. New York: Cambridge University Press. Acemoglu, Daron and James A. Robinson. 2005. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press. Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce, Alastair Smith, Randolph M. Siverson, and James D. Morrow. 2003. The Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Brooker, Paul. 2000. Non-democratic Regimes: Theory, Government, and Politics. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Kuran, Timur. 1991. Now Out of Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European Revolution of 1989. World Politics, 44:7–48. Gandhi, Jennifer. 2008. Political Institutions under Dictatorship. New York: Cambridge University Press. North, Douglass C. and Weingast, Barry R. 1989. Constitutions and commitment: The evolution of institutions governing public choice in seventeenth-century england. Journal of Economic History, 49(4):803–832. Olson, Mancur. 1993. Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development. American Political Science Review, 87:567–576. Levitsky, Steven and Lucan Way. 2010. Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War. New York: Cambridge University Press. Larry Diamond, “Thinking about Hybrid Regimes,” Journal of Democracy, Vol. 13, no. 2 (April 2002), pp. 21-35. Geddes, Barbara. 1999. What do we know about democratization after twenty years?. Annual review of political science, 2(1), 115-144. Magaloni, Beatriz. 2008. Voting for Autocracy: Hegemonic Party Survival and its Demise in Mexico. New York: Cambridge University Press. Malesky, Edmund, and Paul Schuler. 2010. “Nodding or Needling: Analyzing Delegate Responsiveness in an Authoritarian Parliament.” American Political Science Review 104 (3): 1–21. Chenggang Xu. 2011. “The Fundamental Institutions of China’s Reforms and Development,” The Journal of Economic Literature, 49:4, 1076-1151