PLSC 485VGender and Violence in Africa

Catalog

Not all dictatorships and authoritarian regimes are the same. In fact, there is great variation among these regimes based on how they are set up institutionally, who runs them, how they are run, and how the aforementioned factors lead to different policy outcomes. In this class we will seek to disaggregate a category of regimes that are often lumped together by Western media. We will start the class by examining the differences between democracies and authoritarian regimes and what the substantial differences are. Then we will move on to examine the different ways that authoritarian regimes have been categorized, and why. During this process we will examine the theories on how power-sharing between the dictators and the political elites operate, and how decisions are ultimately made. Finally, we will examine some of the policy implications that may come about based on how these authoritarian regimes are set up. By broadly examining authoritarian regimes from a theoretical point of view, one can better understand why certain dictatorships are the way they are and why these decisions are not necessarily a result of madness, but rather a result of the constraints that the important players have.