PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • Membership
      • All Members
      • Core Members
      • Collegium Members
      • Associate Members
      • About Membership
    • Ukraine Experts
    • Executive Committee
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
    • Submissions
  • Podcasts
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
  • Ukraine Experts
Contacts

Address
1957 E St NW,
Washington, DC 20052

adminponars@gwu.edu
202.994.5915

NEWSLETTER
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Podcast
PONARS Eurasia
PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • Membership
      • All Members
      • Core Members
      • Collegium Members
      • Associate Members
      • About Membership
    • Ukraine Experts
    • Executive Committee
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
    • Submissions
  • Podcasts
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
  • Ukraine Experts
DIGITAL RESOURCES
digital resources

Bookstore 📚

Knowledge Hub

Course Syllabi

Point & Counterpoint

Policy Perspectives

RECOMMENDED
  • The Russia Program at GW (IERES)

    View
  • The Evolving Concerns of Russians after the Invasion | New Voices on Eurasia with Sasha de Vogel (March 9)

    View
  • PONARS Eurasia Spring Policy Conference (March 3)

    View
  • Ukrainathon 2023 (Feb. 24-25)

    View
  • How Putin has shrugged off unprecedented economic sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine – for now

    View
RSS PONARS Eurasia Podcast
  • The Putin-Xi Summit: What's New In Their Joint Communique ? February 23, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman speaks with Russian China experts Vita Spivak and Alexander Gabuev about the February meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and what it may tell us about where the Russian-Chinese relationship is headed.
  • Exploring the Russian Courts' Ruling to Liquidate the Memorial Society January 28, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with scholars Kelly Smith and Benjamin Nathans about the history, achievements, and impending shutdown of the Memorial Society, Russia's oldest and most venerable civic organization, and what its imminent liquidation portends for the Russian civil society.
  • Russia's 2021 census and the Kremlin's nationalities policy [Lipman Series 2021] December 9, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with social scientist Andrey Shcherbak about the quality of the data collected in the recent population census and the goals of Vladimir Putin's government's nationalities policy
  • Active citizens of any kind are under threat [Lipman Series 2021] November 5, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Alexander Verkhovsky about the Kremlin's ever expanding toolkit against political and civic activists, journalists, and other dissidents.
  • Russia's Legislative Elections followup [Lipman Series 2021] October 4, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Tanya Lokot and Nikolay Petrov about the results of Russia’s legislative elections and about what comes next.
  • Why Is the Kremlin Nervous? [Lipman Series 2021] September 14, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ben Noble and Nikolay Petrov about Russia’s September 17-19 legislative elections, repressive measures against electoral challengers, and whether to expect anything other than preordained results.
  • Vaccine Hesitancy in Russia, France, and the United States [Lipman Series 2021] August 31, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Denis Volkov, Naira Davlashyan, and Peter Slevin about why COVID-19 vaccination rates are still so low across the globe, comparing vaccine hesitant constituencies across Russia, France, and the United States.  
  • Is Russia Becoming More Soviet? [Lipman Series 2021] July 26, 2021
      In a new PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Maxim Trudolyubov about the current tightening of the Russian political sphere, asking whether or not it’s helpful to draw comparisons to the late Soviet period.
  • The Evolution of Russia's Political Regime [Lipman Series 2021] June 21, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Grigory Golosov and Henry Hale about the evolution of Russia's political regime, and what to expect in the lead-up to September's Duma elections.
  • Volodymyr Zelensky: Year Two [Lipman Series 2021] May 24, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sergiy Kudelia and Georgiy Kasianov about Ukrainian President Zelensky's second year in office, and how he has handled the political turbulence of the past year.
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Understanding Authoritarian Politics: Insights from ASEEES

  • November 21, 2017
  • Sarah Wilson Sokhey

Russia’s possible involvement in the recent U.S. election (and with American politicians) has renewed interest in Russian politics in the United States. Many Americans, however, are unfamiliar with how authoritarian regimes operate, or what it would be like to live in one as Tom Pepinsky has pointed out. Compounding the problem, much of the news about Russia in the United States relies on easy stereotypes and a lack of true expertise.

Here, academic research can be valuable in helping us understand the political behavior and political functioning in democratic versus authoritarian settings. For instance: What are the effects of political protest in Ukraine? When do former authoritarian parties win elections? And how do authoritarian regimes govern? Offering insight to these questions, several important findings were recently presented at the annual ASEEES conference in Chicago.

First, nationally representative surveys help us get a handle on political participation in less democratic settings. Bryn Rosenfeld, Grigore Pop-Eleches, and Graeme Robertson presented research about the protests in Ukraine that were part of the Euromaidan movement in 2013 and 2014. They draw on nationally representative panel data from before and after the Euromaidan protests and look at the effect of participating in protests on political attitudes. Unlike much of the work on this topic, they consider how participating in a protest—rather than just living in a country or place where protest has happened—influences political attitudes. They find that participating in political protest leads to a more coherent set of attitudes, and that Euromaidan participants were more ideological than those who participated in the Orange Revolution.

Second, new data on political parties lends insight into when former authoritarian parties win elections. Work on the electoral performance of authoritarian and populist parties was presented by Anna Gryzmala-Busse, the current ASEEES president, and Monika Nalepa. Their work draws on the Democratic Accountability and Linkages Project developed by a group of researchers at Duke University and their own new dataset on authoritarian parties. Their on-going research seeks to explain a paradox wherein liberal democratic parties may adopt positions similar to authoritarian parties, but the latter are more likely to have electoral success.

Finally, research suggests both similarities and differences between democratic and authoritarian policymaking. Alexander Libman and Andrei Yakovlev’s work details how a relatively new Ministry of Far East development, just created in 2012, funnels resources to regions in Russia’s Far East and does so in a way that subverts conflicting policy goals in other Russian ministries. In this way, the Russian government shares a challenge that is fairly universal: bureaucratic battles that impede policy goals. The authoritarian nature of Russian governance, however, has resulted in the creation of a new bureaucracy in a way that runs counter to a more consensual policymaking style we might expect (at least sometimes) in democracies.

Americans may have difficulty understanding how authoritarian regimes operate. A recent media battle has even led the American and Russian governments to both consider labeling media outlets from the other country as foreign agents. In the midst of poor relations, more nuanced and data-driven research about politics in the region is one way forward in promoting a better understanding beyond misleading media stereotypes.

 

Related Topics
  • ASEEES
  • Sokhey
Previous Article
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Marlene Laruelle on Europe’s Far-Right Political Movements

  • November 20, 2017
  • PONARS Eurasia
View
Next Article
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Big Lessons About the Global Economy Emerge at ASEEES

  • November 22, 2017
  • Sarah Wilson Sokhey
View
You May Also Like
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

The Russia Program at GW (IERES)

  • PONARS Eurasia
  • March 10, 2023
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем
  • Uncategorized

The Evolving Concerns of Russians after the Invasion | New Voices on Eurasia with Sasha de Vogel (March 9)

  • PONARS Eurasia
  • March 5, 2023
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

PONARS Eurasia Spring Policy Conference (March 3)

  • PONARS Eurasia
  • March 2, 2023
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Ukrainathon 2023 (Feb. 24-25)

  • PONARS Eurasia
  • February 21, 2023
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

How Putin has shrugged off unprecedented economic sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine – for now

  • Peter Rutland
  • February 21, 2023
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

The Determinants of Assistance to Ukrainian and Syrian Refugees | New Voices on Eurasia with Volha Charnysh (Feb. 16)

  • PONARS Eurasia
  • February 13, 2023
View
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Why Still Pro-Russia? Making Sense of Hungary’s and Serbia’s Pro-Russia Stance

  • Marlene Laruelle and Helena Ivanov
  • February 9, 2023
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

The Desire to Possess: Russia’s War for Territory

  • Irina Busygina
  • February 8, 2023

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

PONARS Eurasia
  • About
  • Membership
  • Policy Memos
  • Recommended
  • Events
Powered by narva.io

Permissions & Citation Guidelines

Input your search keywords and press Enter.