Authoritarian Gravity Centers: A Cross-Regional Study of Authoritarian Promotion and Diffusion

Autocracies not only resist the global spread of democracy but also exert autocratic influence and pressure. This book presents a conceptual model that explains the promotion and diffusion of authoritarian elements through authoritarian gravity centers (AGCs), regimes that attract and contagion countries in geopolitical proximity. Empirical tests across Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Asia demonstrate the effectiveness of AGCs as promoters or neutral sources of attraction. The influence of external factors and regional contexts is crucial in understanding the transmission of autocratic institutional settings, ideas, norms, procedures, and practices, explaining the regional clustering of autocracies.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 13 December 2021
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Autocracies not only hinder the global spread of democracy but also serve as hubs of autocratic influence and pressure. This book presents a conceptual framework to comprehend, evaluate, and explain the promotion and diffusion of authoritarian elements. By adopting a cross-regional approach, esteemed experts empirically test the concept of authoritarian gravity centers (AGCs), which are defined as regimes that exert a pull and attract countries in geopolitical proximity. Through an in-depth analysis spanning Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Asia, these AGCs are demonstrated to be effective as active promoters (push) or as neutral sources of attraction (pull). The authors argue that the influence of exogenous factors, coupled with international and regional contexts for the transformation of regime types, holds paramount importance in understanding and analyzing the transmission of autocratic institutional settings, ideas, norms, procedures, and practices, thus accounting for the regional clustering of autocracies. It is within the regional context that external actors can exert the most significant influence on authoritarian processes.

Authoritarian Gravity Centers is a groundbreaking and indispensable contribution to the expanding realm of autocratization, captivating both undergraduate and postgraduate students of comparative area studies, illiberalism, international politics, and studies of democracy.

Weight: 472g
Dimension: 153 x 228 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367509750