Introduction: State capacity and elections in the study of authoritarian regimes
| Author | Aurel Croissant,Olli Hellmann |
| Published date | 01 January 2018 |
| Date | 01 January 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0192512117700066 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512117700066
International Political Science Review
2018, Vol. 39(1) 3 –16
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0192512117700066
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Introduction: State capacity
and elections in the study of
authoritarian regimes
Aurel Croissant
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany
Olli Hellmann
University of Sussex, UK
Abstract
Studies of multiparty elections in authoritarian regimes have proliferated in recent years. Nevertheless,
the available evidence remains inconclusive in terms of when, where, or why elections work to sustain
or undermine authoritarian rule. The contributions to the special issue ‘State Capacity, Elections and
the Resilience of Authoritarian Rule’ argue that analyzing the extent to which the effect of elections on
authoritarian regime resilience is mediated through the factor of state capacity helps to solve this puzzle.
This introduction lays out the analytical foundation for this discussion by reviewing key terms and concepts,
and by highlighting possible theoretical connections between the state capacity literature on the one hand
and the electoral authoritarianism literature on the other. Furthermore, it considers the contributions in this
special issue, and points out areas of agreement and disagreement between the authors, while simultaneously
placing the different arguments within the broader field of enquiry.
Keywords
Authoritarianism, elections, democratization, resilience, stateness, state capacity
Introduction
The end of the ‘third wave’ of democratization and the proliferation of electoral authoritarianism
has sparked a shift in scholarly attention from the study of democratization to the origins, designs
and outcomes of multiparty elections in authoritarian regimes. Nonetheless, the available evidence
is not yet conclusive in terms of when, where, or why elections work to sustain or undermine
authoritarian rule. In particular, scholars have, so far, largely ignored the question of the extent to
Corresponding author:
Aurel Croissant, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Bergheimer Str. 58, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany.
Email: aurel.croissant@ipw.uni-heidelberg.de
700066IPS0010.1177/0192512117700066International Political Science ReviewCroissant and Hellmann
research-article2017
Introduction
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