Authoritarianism: Accountability and Pol

Historically, the vast majority of human society has been governed by non-democratic regimes.  Even today, more than half the world’s people live in autocracies.  Many SIPA students come from countries whose governments are not democratic, and will work in institutions and sectors where regimes are not democratic.  Yet almost all of the literature of political science on policy-making is devoted to democracy—its genesis, stability, challenges, consolidation, processes, merits, and flaws. Perhaps that is warranted; as Winston Churchill is said to have remarked, “democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”

 But what of “all the others?”

How are we to understand the regimes we collect together as “non-democratic?”  Do the authoritarian regimes of the world have anything in common? Are there effective ways to understand how policy is made in the absence of the transparent and routinized laws and procedures associated with democratic regimes?

And are democratic regimes, once installed, immune to decay, breakdown, or change into less transparent, routinized, and accountable regimes?  Is it true, as Adam Przeworski wrote, “above a per capita income of $6055, democracy lasts forever?”

Is the sharp theoretical distinction between regimes characterized by democratic procedures and those that exhibit authoritarian or illiberal practices actually so clear in practice? 

This course is designed to examine these questions, to interrogate the notion of “authoritarianism” as an analytical concept, to explore how we should approach the study of policy-making processes in regimes that are stable, enduring, sometimes even dynamic and enlightened, but not democratic, and to explore how such regimes arise from or develop into democracies.

Students will both gain exposure to a number of the classic and newer works of American political science as well as to other analytical perspectives that should assist in understanding the workings of politics in a variety of settings, from monarchies to democracies, non-state actors to imperial powers.

Enrollment in this course is restricted to students who have officially declared the EPD or D&G concentration, as reflected in their Stellic profile. If space allows, enrollment may be extended to non-EPD students at a later date.