The students will be introduced to course coverage and its requirements. There will be an exchange of expectations from the course between the students and the lecturer and an introductory lecture on the anatomy of dictatorship.

The students will be introduced to the differences and similarities between totalitarian and authoritarian regimes as well as between illiberal democracies and authoritarian regimes.

The students will understand the differences among types of contemporary authoritarian regimes, i.e. military regime, personalistic regime, theocracy, one-party regime.

The session will explain the strategy of legitimation, how and why it is vital for authoritarian regime survival.

The session will explain the authoritarian strategy of co-optation, how and why it is vital for authoritarian regime survival. IMPORTANT: Submission of Response Paper I

The session will explain the authoritarian strategy of repression, how and why it is vital for authoritarian regime survival.

The students will understand the function of elections under authoritarianism, how dictators benefit from holding elections.

The students will understand the function of political parties under authoritarianism, how dictators benefit from controlling parties. IMPORTANT: Submission of Response Paper II

Please note that in this class, the required reading is replaced with the following article: Shen-Bayh, F. (2018). Strategies of Repression: Judicial and Extrajudicial Methods of Autocratic Survival. World Politics, 70(3), 321–357. The students will understand the function of a judiciary under authoritarianism, the function of courts.

IMPORTANT: In-Class Mid-Term Exam This session will aim to understand how authoritarianism is transforming and changing face through the use of digital toolkits

The role of China and Russia in spreading authoritarian practices

The students will learn opposition strategies under authoritarian regimes

Guest lecture: Dr. Tereza Jermanova, Charles University, Prague What conditions account for the rise of upheavals or protest movements in authoritarian regimes? How do the autocrats respond to these protests to survive?

Final Exam during class hours