The state-regime-nexus: law and legal order

The aim of this paper is to illuminate the interdependent relation and connectivity between state and regime known as the state-regime-nexus. To conceptualize the reciprocal institutional relation between state and regime and to deepen the understanding of the state-regime-nexus, I focus on law and legal order as one mutual linkage between state and regime in both democratic and autocratic regimes. To do so, this conceptual paper addresses two points that are part of the same topic: the relation between state, regime and law and different variants of legal order in democratic and autocratic regimes. This creates a theoretical basis to gain more conceptual and analytical clarity in the complex realm of the state-regime-nexus.

US move against Israeli firm will not slow spyware use

Significance Reports about this spyware’s widespread use to target activists and critics have tarnished the company, which on November 3 was blacklisted by US President Joe Biden’s administration. This prohibits US entities from purchasing NSO Group products. Impacts Calls for regulatory reform to limit the development, use and export of spyware capabilities will increase in Western countries The private sector in Israel and elsewhere will continue to play a major role in the development of the lucrative global spyware market. Autocratic regimes and states with weak democratic accountability will actively use spyware as more business shifts online.

“Defection-Proofing” the Military and Authoritarian Regime Survival

The question of loyalty in autocratic regimes has drawn a sustained scholarly interest, especially as autocratic leaders need to secure the support of their militaries to survive in office and to minimize the risk of a coup. Among the commonly employed mechanisms in this regard is the extension of extra-budgetary financial rewards, including “Military-Owned Businesses (MOBs)”. Nevertheless, under the increasingly significant threat of an uprising from below, military defection remains the key for the success of the revolution. The question then becomes: under what conditions would a military defect from an autocratic ruling alliance? This paper presents one novel answer to this question, which is: militaries are “defection-proofed” in the face of mass uprisings when they develop financial dependency on the regime. This hypothesis is tested comparatively against the cases of mass protests in China (1989), Indonesia (1998), Thailand (2006), and Iran (2009).

The Global State of Democracy 2021: Building resilience in a pandemic era

The world is becoming more authoritarian as autocratic regimes become even more brazen in their repression and many democratic governments suffer from backsliding by adopting their tactics of restricting free speech and weakening the rule of law, exacerbated by what threatens to become a "new normal" of Covid-19 restrictions. Over a quarter of the world's population now live under democratically backsliding governments, including some of the world's largest democracies, such as Brazil, India and three EU members - Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia. Together with those living in non-democratic regimes, they make up more than two-thirds of the world's population.

When (Not) to Trade with Autocrats: Complicity, Exploitation, and Human Rights

Transnational trade is at the heart of the global economy. Trade relations often transcend both ideological divides and regime type. Trading with autocratic regimes, however, raises significant moral issues. In their recent book, On Trade Justice, Mathias Risse and Gabriel Wollner argue that trade with autocratic regimes is morally permissible only under a very limited set of circumstances. This article discusses the morally permissible trade policies that liberal democracies ought to adopt toward autocratic regimes. Liberal democracies trading with autocratic regimes have a special obligation to improve the human rights conditions in these regimes. This duty is partly based on their complicity in human rights violations and on the fact that the democracies benefit from these violations in their trading relationships. Their responsibility goes beyond the improvement of labor conditions and requires various strategies such as imposing trade sanctions and export controls, and making trade conditional on human rights performance.

Clubs of autocrats: Regional organizations and authoritarian survival

While scholars have argued that membership in Regional Organizations (ROs) can increase the likelihood of democratization, we see many autocratic regimes surviving in power albeit being members of several ROs. This article argues that this is the case because these regimes are often members in “Clubs of Autocrats” that supply material and ideational resources to strengthen domestic survival politics and shield members from external interference during moments of political turmoil. The argument is supported by survival analysis testing the effect of membership in autocratic ROs on regime survival between 1946 to 2010. It finds that membership in ROs composed of more autocratic member states does in fact raise the likelihood of regime survival by protecting incumbents against democratic challenges such as civil unrest or political dissent. However, autocratic RO membership does not help to prevent regime breakdown due to autocratic challenges like military coups, potentially because these types of threats are less likely to diffuse to other member states. The article thereby adds to our understanding of the limits of democratization and potential reverse effects of international cooperation, and contributes to the literature addressing interdependences of international and domestic politics in autocratic regimes.

China’s Interactions with Latin America and the Caribbean

In 2020, during his state visit to Latin America and the Caribbean, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo underlined the importance of keeping the People’s Republic of China out of the LAC region, which is (still) regarded as the US’s “strategic backyard”. Earlier already, US politicians had stressed the need for close cooperation between the US and the Organization of American States in countering the rise of autocratic regimes (and the expansion of Beijing’s sphere of influence) in Latin America. The essays compiled on this volume examine the PRC’s role on the ground in Latin America and the Caribbean by assessing the regional level as well as select bilateral relationships. With contributions by Mateo Arbeiter, Pamela Aróstica Fernández, Bruna Bosi Moreira, Benjamin Creutzfeldt, Jefferson dos Santos Estevo, Evan Ellis, Victor Jeifets, Víctor M. Mijares, Haibin Niu, Nele Noesselt, Detlef Nolte, Ana Soliz de Stange, Laís Forti Thomaz and Eduardo Velosa.

Performance and Promotions in an Autocracy: Evidence from Nazi Germany

Scholars of autocracies increasingly debate whether autocratic regimes promote their subordinates based on achievements, such as economic performance, and further a meritocratic system. This article argues that the extent to which autocratic regimes reward economic performance is not constant over the course of an autocratic regime’s lifespan but varies depending on the strategic goals of the regime and the regime's ability to monitor its subordinates' performance. We collect a new dataset on the careers of the regional leaders of the German Nazi Party, the Gauleiters, from 1936 to 1944, and a wealth of historical data sources from the regime. Using this, we show that better regional economic performance increased the chance of receiving a promotion before the outbreak of World War II but not after.