Modes of post-Cold War Autocratization

Abstract

How does autocratization happen? In this chapter, the authors explore different modes of post-Cold War autocratization. Based on a new classification that distinguishes five different modes of regime change towards autocracy—namely, military intervention, electoral process manipulation, political rights violation, civil liberties restriction, and horizontal accountability loosening—the authors highlight the multi-modal nature of the majority of contemporary processes of autocratization. Accordingly, they conduct crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to identify the main paths of post-Cold War autocratization. The analysis demonstrates the complexity of contemporary processes of regime change towards autocracy, but also the systematic connection between specific modes and forms of autocratization.