Do they know something we don’t? Diffusion of repression in authoritarian regimes
| Published date | 01 September 2019 |
| Date | 01 September 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0022343318822718 |
| Subject Matter | Regular Articles |
Do they know something we don’t?
Diffusion of repression in
authoritarian regimes
Roman-Gabriel Olar
Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin
Abstract
The use of repressive strategies by authoritarian regimes received a great deal of attention in the literature, but most
explanations treat repression as the product of domestic events and factors. However, the similarity in repressive
actions during the Arab Spring or the intense collaboration in dissident disappearances between the military regimes
of Latin America indicate a transnational dimension of state repression and authoritarian interdependence that has
gone largely understudied. The article develops a theory of diffusion of repression between autocracies between
institutionally and experientially similar autocracies. It proposes that the high costs of repression and its uncertain
effect on dissent determines autocracies to adjust their levels of repression based on information and knowledge
obtained from their peers. Autocracies’ own experience with repression can offer suboptimal and incomplete
information. Repression techniques and methods from other autocracies augment the decisionmaking regarding
optimal levels of repression for political survival. Then, autocracies adjust their levels of repression based on observed
levels of repression in their institutional and experiential peers. The results indicate that authoritarian regimes
emulate and learn from regimes with which they share similar institutions. Surprisingly, regimes with similar dissent
experience do not emulate and learn from each other. The results also indicate that regional conflict does not affect
autocracies’ levels of repression.
Keywords
autocracy, diffusion, interdependence, institutions, repression
Introduction
Operation Condor was a secret intelligence network cre-
ated by the military regimes of Argentina, Chile, Uru-
guay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil, and joined later by
Ecuador and Peru, with the aim to hunt down and
eliminate leftists and dissidents that could oppose the
right-wing military bureaucratic states. They cooperated
in sharing intelligence and methods of torture against
political opponents. Starting in the 1960s, intelligence
officers from other Condor countries travelled to Brazil
for training in interrogation techniques and methods of
repression (McSherry, 2002). Similarly, interior minis-
ters of the Arab League met regularly since the early
1980s, under the auspices of the Arab Interior Ministers
Council, to innovate and share new technologies of
repression (Yom, 2016). These examples provide some
indication that there is a transnational dimension to
authoritarian repression. The repressive nature of author-
itarian regimes has received a lot of attention (Daven-
port, 2007a; Svolik, 2012), but its transnational
dimension
1
has gone largely understudied (Mattes &
Rodrı
´guez, 2014; Soest, 2015). This article examines
how domestic factors create transnational linkages
between autocracies and how they drive diffusion of
violent repression between autocracies with similar
Corresponding author:
olarr@tcd.ie
1
This is used interchangeably with interdependence, transnational
linkages or dependence. It refers to the idea that repression in one
autocracy is influenced by levels of repression in other autocracies.
Journal of Peace Research
2019, Vol. 56(5) 667–681
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0022343318822718
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