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Discussion Paper Details

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Title: The Political Economics of Non-democracy

Author(s): Georgy Egorov and Konstantin Sonin

Publication Date: October 2020

Keyword(s): bureaucracy, Censorship, coup d'etat, Dictatorship, electoral fraud, media freedom, nondemocratic politics, Propaganda, repressions and Revolutions

Programme Area(s): Public Economics

Abstract: We survey recent theoretical and empirical literature on political economy of non-democracies. Dictators face many challenges to their rule: internal, such as palace coups or breakdown of their support coalition, or external, such as mass protests or revolutions. We analyze strategic decisions made by dictators --- hiring political loyalists to positions that require competence, restricting media freedom at the cost of sacrificing bureaucratic efficiency, running a propaganda campaign, organizing electoral fraud, purging associates and opponents, and repressing citizens --- as driven by the desire to maximize the regime's chances of staying in power. We argue that the key to understanding the functioning and ultimately the fate of a nondemocratic regime is the information flows within the regime, and the institutions that govern these information flows.

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Bibliographic Reference

Egorov, G and Sonin, K. 2020. 'The Political Economics of Non-democracy'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=15344