Authoritarianism

why?

• The Authoritarian Pact
  • Order and stability (rule & economics)
    • Support for authoritarianism is high in middle-income countries
    • More people support authoritarian forms of government in countries where fewer say it is important that opposition parties can operate freely
  • Compromised
    • Freedom
    • Democratic participation and expression
• Promises
  • Security and order
  • Strong leadership
  • Economic benefits
• Exploit
  • Economic hardship and lack of opportunity
  • Fear and division
  • Alienation and disillusionment
  • Lack of alternatives

Authoritarian Developmentalism Model

• Priority to economic accumulation nationally (wealthy, middle-class) at whatever social and political costs
  • Development first, democracy later
• State-led
  • Strong government and business cooperation
    • Large corporations
      • Government suppresses labor unrest
    • Chaebols
• Economic policies
  • Import substitution
    • Replace foreign imports with domestic production
    • Korea: heavy industry, ship-building, textiles, technology (after democratization)
  • High tariffs
• Justifies violence
  • Political exclusion to create fear (e.g. immigrants)
  • Surveillance
  • Suppression of freedoms
    • Speech
    • Press
    • Assembly
  • Fear and division
    • Division over coalition, the bane of authoritarianism
  • Police and/or military state
  • Economic inequality for workers
  • Environmental destruction

repression strategies

• Structural repression: institutional mechanisms that can limit political freedoms
  • e.g. from Korea
    • Military control units
    • Anti-Communist Law and National Security Law
    • Martial Law Decrees
    • KCIA
    • Officers-turned-bureaucrats
    • Close government-business relations
    • Universal conscription
      • Source of trauma
      • Strong bonds
        • Job opportunities
        • Represses women’s involvement in workplace
          • Undervalued
    • Censorship
    • Suppression of political activity
    • Union/worker repression and control
• Situational repression: specific ways in which the state organs deal with “on-the-ground” anti-state protests
  • Crowd-control (tear gas, batons, bullets, rubber bullets)
  • Assault (physical and sexual)
  • Imprisonment
  • Surveillance