Political Institutions under Dictatorship [Hardcover]

Gandhi's cross-national study examines the political uses of nominally democratic institutions by non-democratic states.Gandhis comprehensive cross-national study examines the political uses of democratic institutions by dictators. Her research examines how they are used to organize political concessions, proving that they are an important tool for dictators in managing potential opposition and that they affect policies and outcomes under authoritarian regimes.Gandhis comprehensive cross-national study examines the political uses of democratic institutions by dictators. Her research examines how they are used to organize political concessions, proving that they are an important tool for dictators in managing potential opposition and that they affect policies and outcomes under authoritarian regimes.Often dismissed as window-dressing, nominally democratic institutions, such as legislatures and political parties, play an important role in non-democratic regimes. In a comprehensive cross-national study of all non-democratic states from 1946 to 2002 that examines the political uses of these institutions by dictators, Gandhi finds that legislative and partisan institutions are an important component in the operation and survival of authoritarian regimes. She examines how and why these institutions are useful to dictatorships in maintaining power, analyzing the way dictators utilize institutions as a forum in which to organize political concessions to potential opposition in an effort to neutralize threats to their power and to solicit cooperation from groups outside of the ruling elite. The use of legislatures and parties to co-opt opposition results in significant institutional effects on policies and outcomes under dictatorship.1. The world of dictatorial institutions; 2. Three illustrative cases; 3. The use of institutions to co-opt; 4. Institutions and policies under dictatorship; 5. Institutions and outcomes under dictatorship; 6. Institutions and the survival of lS4