Authoritarian regimes Research Papers

Some fifty years after the 1967-war, the former Defence Minister Hafez al-Assad's role in Syria's military tactics that lead to the loss of both the war and Syrian territory and which impacts these decisions had for Assad's subsequent... more

The content of mass information in any society is closely linked to the patterns of its political development. A typical example of this concerns the modern Russian media, which have been influenced particularly by their embeddedness with... more

The content of mass information in any society is closely linked to the patterns of its political development. A typical example of this concerns the modern Russian media, which have been influenced particularly by their embeddedness with the authorities. Indeed, the Russian media have served as the mouthpiece of the country’s political leaders, and this fact has left a significant imprint on media coverage. To understand the symbiotic relationship between Russian political leaders and media, this article focuses on the Syrian Civil War, which is currently one of the most important issues on the international political agenda. The Russian government’s role in the conflict over the last several years has affected the Russian media’s tremendous interest in this topic. Nonetheless, Moscow’s participation in the war was determined uniquely by how the communication sphere related the conflict to its audience so that its involvement in the Syrian imbroglio was not an objective reflection of reality. Guided by the political interests of the authorities, the Russian media created an emotionally oriented story, which intended to advance an extremely positive interpretation of Russia’s role in this conflict in the minds of the audience. Therefore, in terms of propaganda, these media acted not as “pure” promoters of the state’s will, but rather as its “interpreters.” This study highlights how leading Russian publications approach this agenda and the consequences this fact has for the Kremlin’s political priorities. The authors come to a definite conclusion regarding Russian media’s unconditional dependence on the political priorities of modern Russian society. It was crucial for the Kremlin that the media present a positive view of Moscow’s involvement in the conflict given that Russia’s military presence in Syria caused a very controversial reaction throughout the world and led to increased tensions and contentious disputation between Russia and many Western countries. Therefore, the Kremlin needed to justify its policies and did so through manipulating the Russian public by means of a large-scale propaganda campaign conducted through the Russian media. This phenomenon is pivotal to understand not only the case of Russia’s involvement in Syria but also contemporary international media development.

KEYWORDS: ISIS, political and media bias, Russia, Syria, terrorism

Once años después de la elaboración de sus conocidas tesis sobre el &girnen autoritario>> (elaboración impresa en un multirreproducido articulo: <tAn Authoritarian Regime: The Case of Spain,, 1964), el autor del presente ensayo intenta de... more

The visibility of, and focus on, authoritarian hybrid threats – a mix of conventional and non-conventional hostile activities to undermine democracies – is increasing. Techniques and technologies keep evolving, and a growing number of... more

The ENIS Spring School 2020 addresses two closely interrelated aspects of Islam in the digital age. Firstly, how (past and contemporary) technological revolutions have informed the performance of selfhood (including gender), the modes of... more

The ENIS Spring School 2020 addresses two closely interrelated aspects of Islam in the digital age. Firstly, how (past and contemporary) technological revolutions have informed the performance of selfhood (including gender), the modes of engagement with society, and the political consequences of shifting boundaries between public and private spheres. Secondly, it addresses the construction and transformation of religious authority and religious knowledge production, and concomitant questions of legitimacy, power and discipline, under changing circumstances. Presently there is a mushrooming of YouTube channels presenting testimonials and life accounts, facebook pages providing space for minority groups (e.g. homosexuals or ex-Muslims) that publicise previous hidden aspects of identity, as well as blogs and homemade videos communicating everyday life events or short clips showing artistic performance in an affordable non-celebrity style sharing them with a wide audience. Quite often they contain an (implicit) political statement about the societies in which the expressions are uttered, not only in the message but also in the mere fact of the utterance. (Young) people in the Muslim world, like elsewhere, share more and more aspects of self, including more intimate and previously hidden ones, or experiences with 'illegality'. These new digital forms of self-expression also entail a claim to space for individualised selfhood. Out of sight of different regimes of surveillance, forms of marginality, secret lives and intimate experiences take on a more public form. With that it questions dominant forms of authority, whether parental, communal, religious or political. The Muslim / Arab world is usually characterised as stressing communal or relational forms of identities and putting less emphasis on individualised selfhood in comparison to the West. The Arab Uprisings first seemed to overturn some deeply rooted forms of authority, including with respect to political power, but now long-established authoritarian forms of power with their different nuances appear to be square back. Yet several observers notice a 'silent revolution' taking place on an individual level, asserting individual selfhood and rights. Do these new forms of self-narratives and artistic performances offer us insight into the development of new forms of selfhood? What are the most important characteristics and expressive forms of these new forms of selfhood? What are the potential political consequences of new forms of self-understanding and expression? Issues of selfhood and artistic performance are closely linked to questions of legitimacy, power and discipline. Muslims have held varying, sometimes conflicting, views on the extent to which knowledge and authority are exclusive of a single figure, a masculine 'professional' group, or distributed in society, how knowledge should be transmitted and controlled, and the literary forms that it should take, and how it should be reproduced. The widely held assumption that in the pre-digital era Islamic reasoning was a collective matter of established scholars and theology-centred argumentation lacks historical pedigree. The individual as a political subject emerged centuries before the dawn of digital technology.

This book provides a comparative study of fascisms and reactionary nationalisms. It presents these as transnational political cultures and examines the dictatorships and regimes in which these cultures played significant roles. The book... more

Yazar: Till Manderbach & Daniel Schnur

A bibliographic article from the late twentieth century, titled as ‘Exile and Dictatorship in Latin America since 1945: An Annotated Bibliography’, attempts to illustrate a major mechanism of exclusion – the exile, and the political... more

A bibliographic article from the late twentieth century, titled as ‘Exile and Dictatorship in Latin America since 1945: An Annotated Bibliography’, attempts to illustrate a major mechanism of exclusion – the exile, and the political dictatorship intricately associated with it; both used and widely abused in the Latin America back then. Authorized by Frank McQuade, the article was first published in Third World Quarterly of ‘The Politics of Exile’ during 1987.i
Through its signifying socio-political and historical sources, the major impetus of this bibliography is to determine the nature of political commitment for the exiled intellectuals (i.e. political persecution, torture, censorship, disappearances); set against the background of individual tyrants and regimes of terror. In his writing, McQuade repeatedly reflected an essence that the condition of the exile is only one manifestation of political intolerance and repression in Latin America, and cannot be wholly divorced from other horrors of authoritarian and dictatorial rule.
The article seeks to de-mystify the dictatorship and its inherent game of political exile, by portraying the references of historical works first, and then case studies in constitutive countries of Latin America. Assuming a ‘deductive method’, this article unravels an ‘explanatory’ work on the generalized nature of exile and dictatorship in Latin America, through its ‘qualitative approaches’.
The article, ‘Political Exile in Latin America’ (2007),ix co-authored by Mario Sznajder and Luis Roniger, seeks to address why and how exile could not be ignored by either political actors or scholars, on a continent-wide basis which is Latin America. This analysis indicates the framework in which exile crystallized as a major mechanism for regulating political conflict in the past two centuries. The author shifts their major focus on the concept that under the prevailing conditions of incipient institutionalization of independent polities, exile became instrumental in establishing the changing rules of the political game in Latin American countries.

Under the omnipresence of surveillance, control and fear of the state as ontological signifiers, not only agency but also subjective and collective memories of people become unspeakable, hidden and veiled. This paper aims to underline the... more

FIIA Briefing Paper 273, October 2019, https://www.fiia.fi/en/publication/glitches-in-the-kremlins-politics-of-fear

Why do some autocratic countries attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) than others? Surprisingly, few studies have explored the considerable variation in FDI inflows to non-democratic countries. In this article, I argue that... more

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  Lucas Lixinski
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  International Law, Authoritarian regimes, Global South

Nearly seven years from the outbreak of the so called ‘Arab Spring’ events President Bashar al-Assad is the only Arab autocrat within Arab republics who managed to maintain power until present day. While four longstanding autocrats have... more

This article examines the effects of the 2012 foreign agent law and the 2013 gay propaganda law on LGBT rights activism and the strategies that have been developed by activists in response to increased state resistance. Following the... more

Artigo recebido e aprovado em novembro de 2007 Resumo: O presente artigo tem por objetivo analisar as matrizes do pensamento autoritário português anteriormente à ascensão do Estado Novo bem como sua contribuição no ordenamento... more

Talking points for EU Western Balkans Media Days, Podgorica, Montenegro - Sept 12, 2019. Grand Panel 1: Ensuring Media Freedom and Sustainability of Independent Media in the Western Balkans.

This paper examines how autocracies across the world securitise their migration and diaspora policies, and identifies the conditions that give rise to transnational authoritarianism

Both in the Party Charter and in the State Constitution, the Chinese Communist Party claims to represent the Chinese people. Instead of treating this claim as mere rhetoric made by the party for propaganda purposes, this article... more

The military dictatorship in Chile was built after Salvador Allende’s overthrown by a coup d'état in 1973 who was the democratically-elected socialist government leader of Chile (Miliband, 1973). This 1973 coup led by General Pinochet.... more

The military dictatorship in Chile was built after Salvador Allende’s overthrown by a coup d'état in 1973 who was the democratically-elected socialist government leader of Chile (Miliband, 1973). This 1973 coup led by General Pinochet. The 1973 coup is an important example of bureaucratic authoritarianism in the politics of Latin America, aiming to solve problems of any country by the hands of army forces. During the military power from 1973 to the 1989, general elections were characterized by the systematic suppression of political parties, the persecution of opposition groups; and significant change in the foreign relations of Chile. With regards to these repressions and exclusion, there emerged some opposition actions, especially about human rights. All of the actions that are made against the press of bureaucratic authoritarianism are kind of social or political movements or at least organizations, whether small or broad, global or national. The question of why social movements are born, and grow has been the research area of the scientists for years. Especially under the authoritarian regimes, because of the fearful atmosphere and pressure, it is not expected to have any social movement. In the case of Chile, however, despite all the pressure, torture, exile; there were some pro-democracy and human rights movements against them, gradually. With this article it is intended to focus on the reasons of why people react against these severe repressions, although it is too risky by examining the specific case of 1973 coup of Chile. The issue of the reasons of social movements and organizations, of what triggers people to raise their voice, especially under authoritarianism, is important because it helps us to understand the possibilities we can face with in the process of transition to democracy or from democracy. It also helps us to understand how a movement can be successful. In this article, I will firstly mention about the historical context of the 1973 coup and its onwards in Chile. Then I will explain the social consequences which can be seen as movements via grounding to the theoretical framework for each. The theories I will use to explain the Chilean social movements case are the deprivation theory, political process theory, resource mobilization theory and structural strain theory. The fundamental theory of this article will be the structural strain theory, I will create my explanations on this theory. However, for the theoretical framework and for examining other literatures, I will give brief information and implications of the other theories, before the structural strain theory.

Authoritarian regimes

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