Announcement Week 8

Hi all,

This week, we will be working on the related questions of whether some authoritarian regimes are systematically “benevolent”, and whether some authoritarian regimes are best suited to some “cultures.”

There is great variation among authoritarian regimes: some are obvious disasters (like Mobutu’s Zaire or Ceausescu’s Romania), while others are quite successful by some metrics (e.g., promoting economic growth, as in South Korea under Park Chung Hee or in Singapore under Lee Kwan Yew). Are there specifically benevolent authoritarian regimes? How do they differ from the non-benevolent ones?

The debate over benevolent authoritarianism is typically connected to a claim about culture; some people have argued that East Asian countries, for example, thrive under some kinds of authoritarian governance. And many people have doubted whether democracy is appropriate to Muslim countries. Are there some cultures that are better “suited” to non-democratic government? What aspects of culture might (or might not) make a country well suited to non-democratic government? How would we know it’s “culture” rather than something else that makes a country well suited to some particular form of government?

The discussion of non-democracy and culture typically runs together two different issues: whether some form of non-democratic government is legitimate in some countries, and whether some cultural conditions simply make democratic government difficult to establish. The latter is the “prerequisites of democracy” debate. Are there cultural prerequisites for the establishment of successful democracy? Are there cultural prerequisites for successful authoritarianism, for that matter?

Regime Classification Project: Next Steps

You can still vote on your preferred RCE proposal, and e-mail me with your preferences with countries for research.

Grades

Thanks to those of you who submitted an EBP last week. Grades are now available for EBPs from last week (out of 10), along with rubric scores and comments by me.

Everyone who submitted something to the blog (including an EBP) should also get a regular blog grade for last week (out of 2). Almost anything course-related should earn 1 point; “exceptional” contributions may earn 2 points. You can accumulate up to 10 points this way. If you contributed something last week but did not receive a regular contribution grade, please let me know; it’s possible that I may have missed you.

Important deadlines!

People with IDs ending in 4 or 5 have EBPs due this week (5 May and 8 May). Check your specific instructions here. Note that many articles contain statistical analysis - you may skim the maths, and just ask yourself what the point of the argument is.

People with IDs ending in 3 or 6 have EBPs due the next week (12 and 15 May). Check your specific instructions here.