Question:
Course Description: Master-or PhD level seminar. How do di erent political regimes
arise and change? This course will look at the di erent regime types in the world,
their de nitions, historical roots and evolution. Some of the main readings in political
science on authoritarian regimes and their breakdown will be considered. Explaining
authoritarian resilience and fagility will be a part of the course. The role of elections will
be discussed. Emphasis is on concepts and arguments, not on memorizing mechanical
facts.
Week 1
Chapters from Robert A. Dahl. Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. Yale, New Haven,
CT, 1971
Geddes, Barbara. `Changes in the Causes of Democratization Through Time’ in , pp 278-
298.
Week 2
Charles Boix. Democracy, development, and the international system. American Political
Science Review, 105(4):809{28, 2011
Geddes – Changes in Democratization over time
Geddes – Role if Int’l Factors for Collapse of Authoritarian Regimes
Week 3
1
Milan Svolik. The Politics of Authoritarian Rule. Cambridge University, New York, 2012
Chapters 1-2-3
optional: Jennifer Gandhi. Political Institutions under Dictatorship. Cambridge University
Press, New York, 2008, Chapter 2
optional: Malesky, Edmund and Schuler, Paul. 2010. Nodding or needling: Analyzing
delegate responsiveness in an authoritarian parliament. American Political Science
Review, 104(3):482 502.
Week 4
Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy.
Cambridge University, New York, 2006, excerpts
Chapter 2 and all pages to page 99 in Chapter 3 from Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair
Smith, Randolph M. Siverson, and James D. Morrow. The Logic of Political Survival.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, Cambridge, 2003
Adam Przeworski, Michael Alvarez, Jose Cheibub, and Fernando Limongi. Democracy and
Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the World, 1950-1990. Cam-
bridge University Press, New York, 2000, Pp. 3-59.
Week 5
James D. Fearon. Self-enforcing democracy. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126(4):1661{
1708, 2011
Susan Hyde. The observer e ect in international politics: Evidence from a natural experi-
ment. World Politics, 60(1):37{63, 2007
Corrupting the Cyber-Commons: Social Media as a Tool of Autocratic Stability by Seva
Gunitsky LINK
Week 6
Flores Nooruddin Book: pp.1-38
Chapters 1,3 and 5 in Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way. Competitive Authoritarianism:
Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War. Cambridge, New York, 2010
2
optional: Gehlbach Simpser AJPS
Week 7
Timur Kuran. Sparks and prairie res: A theory of unanticipated political revolution. Public
Choice, 61:41{47, 1989
Joshua Tucker. Enough! electoral fraud, collective action problems, and Post-Communist
colored revolutions. Perspectives on Politics, 5(03):535{551, 2007
Karrie Koesel and Valerie Bunce. Di usion-proo ng: Russian and chinese responses to
waves of popular mobilizations against authoritarian rulers. Perspectives on Politics,
11:753{768, 2013
AUTOMATIC CROWD ANALYSIS FROM VERY HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE
IMAGES by Beril Sirmacek, Peter Reinartz German Aerospace Center (DLR), Remote
Sensing Technology Institute, Germany In: Stilla U et al (Eds) PIA11. International
Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 38
(3/W22) LINK
Week 8
Alan Angell. International support for the chilean opposition, 1973-1989: Political parties
and the role of exiles. In Laurence Whitehead, editor, The International Dimensions
of Democratization, pages 175{226. Oxford University Press, New York, 1996
Van Coufoudakis. The european economic community and the `freezing’ of the greek asso-
ciation, 1967-1974. Journal of Common Market Studies, 16:114{131, 1977
Milada Vachudova. The leverage of international institutions on democratizing states: East-
ern europe and the european union. Robert Shuman Center for Advanced Studies,
European University Institute, Florence, Italy, 2001. EUI Working Paper
The E ect of Labor Migration on the Di usion of Democracy: Evidence from a Former
Soviet Republic by Toman Barsbai, Hillel Rapoport, Andreas Steinmayr, Christoph
Trebesch LINK
Week 9 Propaganda
3
\Electoral E ects of Biased Media Russian Television in Ukraine” by Leonid Peisakhin and
Arturas Rozenas
\The Pathology of Propaganda” (paper on China in ILIAS)
\How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, not
Engaged Argument” by Gary King, Jennifer Pan, and Margaret E. Roberts. Forth-
coming. American Political Science Review, 2017. Copy at LINK
\Will Democracy Survive Big Data and Arti cial Intelligence?” Scienti c American LINK
Week 10
Steven Fish. Are Muslims Distinctive? A Look at the Evidence. Oxford University Press,
New York, NY, 2011, Chapters 2 and 7
Amaney Jamal. Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and
the Arab World. Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 2007 pp. 1-49.
Week 11
Kono, Daniel Y./Montinola, Gabriella R. 2009. Does Foreign Aid Support Autocrats,
Democrats, or Both? Journal of Politics 71(2): 704-718.
Sarr, Mare/Ravetti, Chiara/Swanson, Tim. 2015. Why Give Aid to Resource-Rich Auto-
crats? The Graduate Institute Geneva Research Paper 39: 1-32 LINK
\Dealing with Tyranny: International Sanctions and the Survival of Authoritarian Rulers”
ISQ 2010, Abel Escrib-Folch, Joseph Wright LINK
Paper MS (ILIAS): \International Isolation and Regional Inequality: Evidence from Sanc-
tions on North Korea”
Week 12
G. John Ikenberry. America’s liberal grand strategy: Democracy and national security in
the post-war era. In Michael Cox, G. John Ikenberry, and Takashi Inoguchi, editors,
American Democracy Promotion: Impulses, Strategies, and Impacts, pages 103{126.
Oxford University, New York, 2000
4
Christian von Soest. Democracy prevention: The international collaboration of authoritar-
ian regimes. European Journal of Political Research, pages {, 2015. doi: 10.1111/1475-
6765.12100
Bubeck Marinov 2017 Process or Candidate? The International Community and the De-
mand for Electoral Integrity LINK
Answer:
Human beings have the tendency of being chaotic and therefore there is need to have a person who leads them. The leader has the role of overseeing the activities they undertake to ensure that they live in peace and harmony. In the past, people lived in clans but they had leaders who were the elders, medicine people, warriors, etc. They were men with vast ability, knowledge, and experience about the culture of the people. The leaders organized the communities together and ensured the well-being of its members. In the case of any misfortune they helped each other and by this, they ensured that the community was united. The elders also acted as judges among the parties in disagreement, as a priest and led the people in worshipping the gods, in wars with their enemies and also in celebrating the rites of passage such as birth, initiation, circumcision, marriage and also death. The leaders had the power given by the community to make a major decision on their behalf in ensuring that its people live well with no difficulties. These the traditional way of leadership among the people which ensured positive relations and unity.
Education and Christianity evolution brought many changes in the lives of human being. People learned about different ways of relating with others and stopped the underdeveloped behaviors’ of inter-clan wars to steal animals and other materials possession. Leaders after the changes were now chosen on the basis of the education and Christianity level not the physical characteristic, knowledge of the community beliefs or even abilities. The education and Christianity were campaigned by the missionaries and not all the people saw it as a good thing. Division and disagreements arose as the people saw it as a scheme to take away their culture. However, with time people started seeing the importance of education and religion. These made the people have a common source of knowledge wisdom. Languages developed among different leading to the many languages today. The teaching changed the view about leadership the and since only a few people were enrolling in school, they, knowledgeable than those who did not attend the teaching.
However, the Christianity and education open plans for colonization and these made the communities very annoyed as they saw its denial of their freedom and ways of leadership. Conflicts arose between the clans and the colonizer who had their own intentions. It is through this period that the leadership factor was boosted as communities united under a leader who could lead them to fight the colonizers’. The ways to years but afterward the colonizers took power and education and Christianity was spread to all parts of the world. People learned new ways of fighting for their needs, rights through the power of education. They got the knowledge to fight their colonizers not by spears and arrows but through facts.
During all these times of colonization, the colonial master was brutal and used force to rule their subjects. Their regimes were based on dictatorship and they had great power to do as they deemed right. Nevertheless, it was getting knowledge and wisdom on new ways to stop their colonization. Time elapsed for colonization and the subjects got their independence over the colonizer who went back to their countries. It is funny to not that the indigenous people who were educated took over and started leading as the colonizers. These were evident in Africa after independence as dictators were in control of power due to their ability to gather resources after colonizers left and were educated. The international colonizers who left Africa still had ties with it and this resulted to neo-colonization. The dictators treated the people badly and were used by the colonial masters to impose dictatorial rule as the colonizer were unable to maintain the unending opposition from the people. Some of the dictators’ included the late Kim Jong-Il of North Korea, late Idi Amin Dada of Uganda, Emperor Hirohito of Japan, Saddam Hussein of US,
Adolf Hitler who was the leaders of the Nazi of Germany among many other a. Modernization led to a campaign against colonialism and dictatorship among the in any part of the world. The dictators lost power and some were killed by their subjects as the era of oppression came to an end. Countries made agreements to live in peace and harmony as they encourage trade amongst themselves and this was a step to democracy. Democracy is the rule of the people, for the people and by the people. It simply means that the people choose the best leaders who can serve their interests to rule for a period after which they choose another. When a sitting leader does not take care of their needs they are free to eject him/her from office.
However, the pressure by international communities to campaign for election of the leaders to be a democracy has facilitated to the competitive authoritarian regimes. The leaders who are dictators have techniques to stay in power even after being defeated in elections. They steal the election, kill opponents, detain opposition leaders, impose fear for those willing to participate in order to rule forever and also make laws to their favor to stay in power. After elections, they win in wrong ways but hide the fact that the majority voted for them. These act has made countries stay in oppression by the bad leaders who are disliked but somehow win elections. Votes counting in some countries done by the dictator’s friends and hence assurance of being leaders.
In the world, there are different theories of democracy. The direct democracy which stipulates that people make decisions personally about the laws to govern them without their representatives making them on their behalf. In this manner, the people are able to choose what they fell right through voting. There is the indirect democracy where the people’s decisions are made, they have elected. Deliberative democracy which is making major decision through deliberation or discussion among the people and the right decision adopted. The radical democracy based on the idea or thinking that there is hierarchical and power that oppresses people in each and every community they live. All the theories show how democracy is viewed in different parts of the world.
In conclusion, it is evident that though democracy is believed to be in all places people are still colonized. Colonization, however, is not in the old form but in a disguised way which people hardly note in the society. Leaders who are dictators are ready to die for and in power without losing it. There are bodies which help in ensuring that the rights of the people are respected but it becomes hard to monitor the world whole as the population keeps on increasing. In some theories of democracy there are weaknesses which can lead to return of a bad leader. The deliberate democracy uses discussion on the leaders to have and the rules to make. The rulers have great influence on the subjects in that no one can oppose what they say. These means that the time for discussion does not help. The persons who go against them are threatened and severely punish and this makes the subjects agree on everything the leader say. When the people elect the people to represent them, the representatives are easily influenced by the leaders to make decisions to their advantage. The dictators are too powerful to get away with any matter. The efforts of the people to free themselves from colonialism stopped as they are colonized with no option to take. Democracy to people having their rights respected but the difference or gap between the poor and the rich prevents it. The rich continue to rule over the power through oppression. One great example is the countries of Africa, though they are independent they dependent on help in terms of grants and loans from their colonial masters. These makes the master control their activities indirectly as they are dependent on them for aid. These are called neo-colonialism among the people.
In the world, there is much organization like the international court which strives in ensuring that the rights of the people are respected and it has done it so well. Dictators are jailed and their rule ending in their countries. Even though the process is slow to change is inevitable and all the people in the world will live in peace and harmony. People have the obligation to lives without fear of any intimidation by the rulers. All the people in the world should campaign for full democracy where people decide the rules they wish to lead them. Development of counties and their growth can be achieved only when the leaders represent the interests of the people and not their own.
Neo-colonialism must be avoided by the colonial masters as it leaves the under developed countries in worse scenarios as they have huge debts due to the loans. The countries are given loans at high-interest rates and due to their necessity they take without questions only to have difficulties in payments. All the people are equal and no one can rule over the other. The only thing that happens is having leaders as we cannot all be leaders so that they can represent our needs in the making laws and regulations. It is unethical for people of the same community, color and religion to be used to mistreat the people who they need in their daily operations for existence. There should be no discrimination in the world regardless of the color, color, and origin as all the people are human beings. In order to live in peace, love, and harmony when should respect each other despite the physical differences. Discrimination leads to fear, hatred, and conflicts among the people which should be avoided at all cost. When are the same and we should unit and ensure that our world grows by becoming a better place to live for our children. The actions we take and activities we carry out we should be liable for the outcomes. We should behave responsibly.
Peace in the world will lead to business expansion as foreign trade will grow since no barriers to trade. The employment levels will increase as the people will be free to work in any country if they are qualified. Definitely the living standards will improve as money will be available due to exploitation of the resources. Fear and intimidation makes people not able to be creative and innovative as they are not free. When the rights of the people will be upheld changes will be many as creativity and innovation will be high. Generally, peace and freedom are the causes of a happy life for the people. Unity is strength and when people are together they can solves problems of humanity like diseases, natural calamities like droughts, among others. Therefore, there is the need for all organization and countries to stop discrimination has it has more evils than good to the people. The vision of the world should be to have unity to an extent of even speaking one language and people celebrating each other’s culture. Education and religion are still the greatest factor that have promoted unity and peace with no discrimination in the world. Their leaders should continue as they are helping the human race. Slowly the world will be transformed to be a better place to live.
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