Authoritarian Regimes Analysis

Sarah Jenkins

JNKSAR002

POL2038F Essay

Word Count: 2405

Why do Authoritarian Regimes often endure? Could the Internet play a role?

Although the number of countries who have undergone some sort of democratic transition has risen in the last few decades, there still remain a number of authoritarian regimes. In this essay I will discuss a number of explanations as to why such regimes endure, with a specific focus on the role of the Internet. A prominent force in today’s world, the Internet provides a medium through which information may flow fast and efficiently. A common assumption, especially by prominent, pro-democratic politicians, is that the Internet poses “an insurmountable threat” (Kalanthil & Boas, 2003: 1) to authoritarian regimes as people may be easily exposed to democratic ideas. The Internet, it is believed, is a champion of democracy. However, this view is somewhat contentious. I will discuss whether the Internet does indeed undermine authoritarian regimes, or, in fact, whether it may sustain them. By using two case studies of China and Egypt, two authoritarian regimes with different approaches to the use of Internet, I will conclude that the internet is not the “force for democracy” that it is optimistically assumed to be, although it may offer itself to democratic purposes and catalyze future political change. In fact, it may be a way to control and monitor citizens leading to an eventual decline in internet-dependent opposition thereby sustaining authoritarian regimes.

Many theorists have sought to determine the factors that result in the endurance of authoritarian regimes, especially in the Middle East and North African region. I will briefly discuss the misconceptions of why authoritarian regimes survive in ...

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...thoritarian regime survival. If one were to consider the role of the Internet in sustaining authoritarian regimes, one would be faced with mixed results. Depending on the amount of regulation and surveillance, the Internet may either provide a medium for coercion, as is the case of China, or for political activism, as is the case for Egypt. Although some political scholars would hold that the endurance of authoritarian regimes is described by a single factor such as institutionalization, low taxes, powerful coercion or the Internet, I have shown that all these explanations hold water. Authoritarian regimes differ in a number of ways from one another, and thus to provide a blanket-explanation for their endurance would not heed accurate findings although one could still draw important similarities amongst them and their endurance which I have done in this essay.