The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule

Online at 2 PM, 8th of December, 2023, our first guest will be Johannes Gerschewski (Interim professor in Political Theory and History of Ideas, Leibniz University Hannover), the author of the forthcoming book, The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule (Cambridge University Press). Presenters: Anna Ujlaki (ELTE), Zoltán Gábor Szűcs (ELTE). 

The event will be online (Teams): https://tinyurl.com/hdu5k6r7 

Description of the book 

In The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule, Gerschewski argues that all autocracies must fulfill three conditions to survive: the co-optation of key elites into their inner sanctum, the repression of potential dissent, and popular legitimation. Yet, how these conditions complement each other depends on alternative logic: over-politicization and de-politicization. While the former aims at mobilizing people via inflating a friend-foe distinction, the latter renders the people passive and apathetic, relying instead on performance-driven forms of legitimation. Gerschewski supports this two-logics theory with the empirical analysis of forty-five autocratic regime episodes in East Asia since the end of World War II. In simultaneously synthesizing and extending existing research on non-democracies, this book proposes an innovative way to understand autocratic rule that goes beyond the classic distinction between totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.