The Myth of the Authoritarian Advantage

Levels of regime strength and links to the West help to explain authoritarian breakdown, but the ruler’s popularity also matters.

The financial crisis did not deal a fatal blow to any democracies, but it did hasten an erosion of the influence of the West. In the future, the balance of…

Vladimir Putin has pulled the plug on democracy in Russia in an effort to strengthen the authority of the central state. But a look at Russian federal relations shows that…