Authoritarian Regimes

Abstract

This chapter examines authoritarian regimes in relation to the configuration of political power/parties that is central to how autocracy is practised and sustained within the respective constitutional system. First, it discusses dominant party democracies—semi-democratic regimes that have been ruled by the same dominant political party or coalition since the nation’s independence or transition to a new constitutional system. Next, the chapter explores independent military democracies. In such democracies, the military is an independent branch of government and is not under the firm control of the civilian government. Finally, there are the communist regimes, where elections are a sham, and all levers of state power—the executive, the legislature, the military, and the judiciary—are subjected to the singular control of the country’s Communist Party. These three regime types are not exhaustive of all the authoritarian configurations of power in the world, but they are the predominant ones in Asia, from which this chapter’s case studies are drawn