Week 4 Blog Contribution

Week 4 Blog Contribution

Following on from our topic of personalization from this week I went looking for some articles on the topic that seemed interesting. I found one "The rise of personalist rule" which was an interesting read. Similarly to what we discussed in class they talked about the different levels of personalization in a regime as well as what you could class as the different "flavor's" of authoritarian regimes. Additionally the article talks about the implications of personalized authoritarian regimes for other states, primarily four reasons why personalized states may be more aggressive in the international system than their less centralized counterparts. These four reasons are as follows:

• Characteristics of Personalist Rulers: Personalist rulers are often ambitious, cut throat, and divisive, which drives them to pursue more adventurist international goals compared to leaders of other regimes. 
• Perception of Lower Costs of Fighting: Personalist leaders perceive lower costs of fighting than leaders of democracies or more constrained autocratic systems. They have fewer normative aversions to force, do not internalize the costs of fighting, and view force as a more effective tool of statecraft. 
• Lack of Fear of Defeat: Personalist leaders do not fear defeat as much as other leaders because there are no strong institutions in place to punish them for their mistakes. 
• Groupthink and Overestimation of Victory: Subordinates to personalist leaders are typically unwilling to challenge the leader's personal biases, leading to profound groupthink and an overestimation of the likelihood of victory. 

The article is interesting and worth a read.

LINK:https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-rise-of-personalist-rule/