Authoritarian Regimes

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Voting often refers to the collective action where the peoples’ preferences, ideologies and wills speak out for themselves. Even in non-democractic, authoritarian regimes, elections do exist and voter turnouts tend to incorporate a large percentage of the population. Even more commonly in authoritarian regimes, candidates are repeated for years and even for decades and the results are often predetermined. Elections in non-democractic regimes exist in different levels; however, they rarely offer opportunities for changing the existing regime. According to Lisa Blaydes, a professor in the Department of Political Science in the University of California, Los Angeles, elections in these non-democractic regimes are essential for several reasons. Egypt, for example, chooses to hold elections due to constant pressure from the United States and global institutions to be more democratic. Furthermore, elections are crucial for the survival of the regime on its own. Furthermore, elections also allow the regime to find out its’ supporters against its’ opponents (Magaloni, 2006.)
Political life in authoritarian regimes (notably Jordan and Egypt from the articles read) divides society into two: the wealthy minority who run as candidates and buy votes and the poor majority of citizens who sell themselves to the “highest bidder”. Often, results in authoritarian regimes are pre-determined and the candidates are repeated for years and several decades as well. Why then, do people in such regimes have the incentive to vote? Despite the fact that these votes rarely account for a change in the regime, the results are significant and imples the nature of the political sphere in authoritarian regimes.
Voting in authoritarian regimes could be ca...

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...hat they are doing over and over again. They first need to be properly educated in order to realise that. Voting for autocrats in authoritarian regimes because of survival can prevent them, since people want to survive. But if the same candidates are elected over and over again, and the same people are still not capable of surviving, except in times of election, people must understand and be able to see the pattern. Most importantly, I would also question and interrogate those in the upper classes of the society. For example, I would like at how they have managed to obtain a decent quality of life and whether or not it came from members of the regime that they had personal ties. It is interesting to see why they don’t vote and despite that, how they maintain their living. How come they don’t change what’s going on if it isn’t acceptable and why aren’t they bothered?

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