In recent years, new types of nondemocratic government have come to the fore, notably competitive authoritarianism. Such regimes, though not democratic, feature arenas of contestation in which opposition forces can challenge, and even oust, authoritarian incumbents.
About the Authors
Steven Levitsky
Steven Levitsky is David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and professor of government at Harvard University.
Lucan Way is Distinguished Professor of Democracy at the University of Toronto. Collaborations with Steven Levitsky include “The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism” (2002) and “The New Competitive Authoritarianism” (2020), both published in the Journal of Democracy, and Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War (2010).
Can a regime built by and centered around a populist strongman survive that strongman’s death? A natural experiment is now unfolding in Venezuela as a resurgent opposition and a crisis…
Most competitive authoritarian regimes have proven strikingly unstable over recent decades. Quasi-democratic institutions, rather than serving authoritarians as useful instruments of manipulation, have frequently contributed to the breakdown of these systems.
Regular elections have become a fixture of political life throughout sub-Saharan Africa, but there are now “two Africas” in this regard: one where elections bring the blessings of greater political…
