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[OA] The Political Economics of Non-democracy

We survey recent theoretical and empirical literature on political economics of non-democracies. Dictators face many challenges to their rule: internal, such as palace coups or breakdown of their support coalition, or external, such as mass protests or revolutions.

We analyze strategic decisions made by dictators — hiring political loyalists to positions that require competence, restricting media freedom at the cost of sacrificing bureaucratic efficiency, running a propaganda campaign, organizing electoral fraud, purging associates and opponents, and repressing citizens — as driven by the desire to maximize the regime's chances of staying in power.

We argue that the key to understanding the functioning and ultimately the fate of a nondemocratic regime is the information flows within the regime, and the institutions that govern these information flows.

Egorov G, Sonin K. The Political Economics of Non-democracy. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series 2020;No. 27949. The Political Economics of Non-democracy by Georgy Egorov, Konstantin Sonin :: SSRN
 
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