A

D
• Form of government characterized by absolute obedience to a formal authority
• Little individual freedom
• Expectation of unquestioned obedience
• Four qualities
– Constraints on political institutions & groups
– Basis of legitimacy based on emotion (regime is a necessary evil to combat societal problems)
– Neither intensive nor extensive political mobilization
+ restraints on mass public
– Formally ill-defined, vague executive power

C
• Highly concentrated centralized power
•
Political repression
• Exclusion of political challengers
• Use of political parties & mass organizations to mobilize people around goals of the regime
• Embrace informal & unregulated exercise of political power
•
Deprivation of civil liberties
• Single-Party State – single political party has right to form government
– Most have been ruled following ideology of Marxism-Leninism and international solidarity or by parties following nationalist or fascist ideology
– Not always authoritarian
– Not all authoritarian states are single-party states

T
A
R
• Traditional Authoritarian Regimes
– Ruling authority (single person) maintained in power through a combination of appeals to traditional legitimacy, patron-client ties, and repression
– Example: Ethiopia under Haile Selassie I
• Bureaucratic-Military Authoritarian Regimes
– Governed by a coalition of military officers who act pragmatically (not ideologically) within limits of bureaucratic mentality
– Bureaucratic authoritarian regimes use state apparatus to rationalize & develop the economy
• South Korea under Park Chung-hee

S
• Personalistic – arbitrary rule & authority exercised mainly through patronage networks & coercion
– More prone to corruption than single-party and military regimes
– Shorter-lived regimes more corrupt than those trying to maintain power for longer period
– Seen in post-colonial Africa
• Populist – mobilizational regimes in which strong, charismatic, manipulative leader rules through a coalition involving key lower-class groups
– Example: Argentina under Perón

D
• Political authority rests in one person or political system
– Despotism or Oligarchy
– May coincide with totalitarianism
• Authority exercised through oppressive mechanisms
• Politicians regulate nearly every aspect of public & private behavior of average people
• Employ political propaganda to suppress proponents of alternative governing systems
• Examples
– Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany
– Benito Mussolini in Fascist Italy
– Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire from 1965-1997
(embezzled $5B from his country)
– Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines stole $5-10B
– More than $400B stolen from treasury of Nigerian leaders between 1960 and 1999

T
• Political system in which the state holds total authority over society
• Seeks to control all aspects of public & private life
– Economy, education, art, science, private life, morals of citizens
– Official ideology penetrates societal structure
– Attempts to control thoughts & actions
• Differences from authoritarianism
– Charisma: high in T, low in A
– Ends of power: public in T, private in A
– Corruption low in T, high in A
– Official ideology in T, not in A
• Examples
– Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union
– Benito Mussolini in Fascist Italy
– Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany
– North Korea’s ruling family
– Mao Zedong in China (albeit less successful than Stalin)

R
M
I
• Authoritarian regimes expect absolute obedience to the ruler or ruling party.
• Authoritarian regimes are often single-party states.
• Authoritarian states employ propaganda to shape the political culture, rule through fear, and feature political repression for citizens.
• Authoritarian regimes can take the shape of dictatorships.
• Totalitarianism is an extreme form of authoritarianism; not all authoritarian states are totalitarian.