1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910576867703321

Autore

Higashijima Masaaki

Titolo

The Dictator's Dilemma at the Ballot Box : Electoral Manipulation, Economic Maneuvering, and Political Order in Autocracies / / Masaaki Higashijima

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ann Arbor, Michigan : , : University of Michigan Press, , 2022

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xxiii, 345 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies series

Disciplina

321.9

Soggetti

Dictatorship

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Sommario/riassunto

Modern dictatorships hold elections. Contrary to our stereotypical views of autocratic politics, dictators often introduce elections with limited manipulation wherein they refrain from employing blatant electoral fraud and pro-regime electoral institutions. Why do such electoral reforms happen in autocracies? Do these elections destabilize autocratic rule? The Dictator's Dilemma at the Ballot Box explores how dictators design elections and what consequences those elections have on political order. It argues that strong autocrats who can effectively garner popular support through extensive economic distribution become less dependent on coercive electioneering strategies. When autocrats fail to design elections properly, elections backfire in the form of coups, protests, and the opposition's stunning election victories. The book's theoretical implications are tested on a battery of cross-national analyses with newly collected data on autocratic elections and in-depth comparative case studies of the two Central Asian republics--Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The book's findings suggest that indicators of free and fair elections in dictatorships may not be enough to achieve full-fledged democratization.