Authoritarian gravity centers: a cross-regional study of authoritarian promotion and diffusion

"Autocracies not only resist the global spread of democracy but are sources of autocratic influence and pressure. This book presents a conceptual model to understand, assess, and explain the promotion and diffusion of authoritarian elements. Employing a cross-regional approach, leading experts empirically test the concept of Authoritarian Gravity Centers (AGC) defined as "regimes that constitute a force of attraction and contagion for countries in geopolitical proximity". With an analysis extending across Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Asia, these AGCs are shown to be effective as active promoter (push) or as neutral source of attraction (pull). The authors contend that the influence of exogenous factors, along with international and regional contexts for the transformation of regime types, are vital to understand and analyze the transmission of autocratic institutional settings, ideas, norms, procedures and practices, thus explaining the regional clustering of autocracies. It is the regional context in which external actors can influence authoritarian processes most effectively. Authoritarian Gravity Centers is a vibrant and comprehensive contribution to the growing field of autocratization, which will be of great interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Comparative Area Studies, Illiberalism, International Politics and studies of democracy"--

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Figures -- 2.1 Modes of External Influence: The Concept Tree -- 2.2 Analytical Model -- 3.1 Autocratization in the GCC - Scores on the Democracy Status (Bertelsmann Transformation Index) -- 3.2 Gradation of Saudi Influence Toward its GCC Fellows -- 4.1 The Development of the Democratic Status According to the BTI (2003-2016) -- 8.1 Meetings of the CCP-ID with Party and Non-Party Representatives in Asia, 2002-2017 -- 8.2 Heatmap of the CCP-ID's Activities in Asia by Country, 2002-2017 -- 8.3 CCP-ID Contact with Government and Opposition Parties for Different Political Regime Types, 2002-2017 -- Tables -- 2.1 Sub-Mechanisms: Methods, Instruments, and Coercion -- 4.1 Steps in the Constitutional Reform Process in Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia -- 4.2 Empirical Results of Autocracy Promotion and Diffusion in Latin America -- 6.1 Comparing the Russia Model to Fidesz's Strategy of Democratic Erosion -- 9.1 SCO Evolution of Membership, Observer, and Dialogue Partner Status -- Preface -- Part I: Concept -- 1 Autocratization and Its Pull and Push Factors - A Challenge for Comparative Research -- 2 Conceptualizing Authoritarian Gravity Centers: Sources and Addressees, Mechanisms and Motives of Authoritarian Pressure and Attraction -- Part II: Empirical Studies on Authoritarian Gravity Centers: Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Kazakhstan -- 3 Kingdom of Gravity: Autocratic Promotion and Diffusion in Saudi Arabia -- 4 Democratic Erosion and Autocratization in Latin America: The Role of Venezuela as an Authoritarian Gravity Center -- 5 Kazakhstan: A Possible Future Authoritarian Gravity Center? -- Part III: The International Dimension of Authoritarianism Revisited.