Politics under Authoritarianism
This course situates authoritarianism within the literature of political regimes and then questions the reasons and the sources of authoritarianism in the world. In three separate sections, we will first define our concepts and then will deal with the types of authoritarianism, characteristics of those types, and the major examples in different parts of the globe. We will specifically cover military, sultanistic/personalistic, single-party, and hybrid regimes through the weeks. We will examine the sources of such regimes and how they manage to stay in power. We will then question how regime change occurs under such regimes, maybe leading to a more democratic regime type or just another form of authoritarian leadership. The course will end with investigation of the peculiar relationship between oil and authoritarianism.