Autocratic Regime Features, Regime Types, and Repertoires of Repression

• In Event: State Violence and State Repression

Abstract

Scholars have recently claimed that regime personalization increases state repression. While military regimes and some revolutionary ones have been incredibly repressive, this claim concerns overall repression, not particular repressive tactics. We use structural equations to capture the recursive relationship between three regime types (revolutionary, military, and strongman) and three repressive tactics (oppression, coercion, and state terrorism). We argue for this relationship to be, in turn, modeled as realizations of 3 underlying, time-varying institutional dimensions of autocracies -- namely, party institutionalization, military involvement, and personalism. Our analysis reveals that military and especially strongman regimes are associated with state terrorism but not revolutionary ones and that revolutionary regimes, but not the other two, are significantly associated with coercion.

Authors

• Jose Aleman, Fordham University

• Dong Wook Lee, Adelphi University