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WCED Conference. “How Autocracies Work: Beyond the Electoral Paradigm.”

Friday, April 15, 2011
12:00 AM
1636 International Institute/SSWB, 1080 S. University

The conference will focus on the pillars of modern authoritarian rule: repression, formal political institutions, and society’s economic dependence on the autocratic regime. Sponsors: WCED, Department of Political Science.

The goal of the conference is to weigh the current emphasis on elections and electoral institutions in autocracies against other facets of autocratic rule: repression, economic dependence, informal institutions, etc.

The burgeoning field of authoritarian regime studies has increasingly focused on the peculiarities and importance of elections, electoral institutions, and electoral participation—yet there have been few efforts to see how these interact with, substitute for, or contravene the repressive capacity of the authoritarian state and the networks of economic dependence it creates (through employment, housing, or redistribution.) How do the repressive pillars of autocratic rule interact with each other, how do they affect the durability and robustness of authoritarian rule, and how do they function across autocracies?

We hope to stimulate a lively discussion that will address these issues and others. The conference will consist both of faculty paper presentations and a graduate student poster session. All panels are open to the public.

Click here for links to schedule and conference participants' login.