Why is it “much easier to be an autocrat today than it was in the 1990s”? What lies behind the evolution of a new type of competitive authoritarianism in which “the masses are very much part of the autocracy”? Journal of Democracy editorial board co-chairs Lucan Way and Steven Levitsky sat down with the Journal‘s Brent Kallmer to discuss the new competitive authoritarianism that has emerged in some countries with relatively strong democratic traditions and institutions. Watch the interview below, and don’t miss Levitsky and Way’s full article on “The New Competitive Authoritarianism” in the Journal’s special thirtieth-anniversary issue.
Steven Levitsky is David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and professor of government at Harvard University. Lucan Way is professor of political science at the University of Toronto. Together, they are the authors of Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War (2010). Brent Kallmer is managing editor of the Journal of Democracy.
Read more by Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way:
- “Elections Without Democracy: The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism,” April 2002
- “International Linkage and Democratization,” July 2005
- “Why Democracy Needs a Level Playing Field,” January 2010
- “The Durability of Revolutionary Regimes,” July 2013
- “External Influence and Democratization: Structure vs. Choice,” October 2014
- “The Myth of Democratic Recession, January 2015