Revolution and dictatorship
the violent origins of durable authoritarianism
- ISBN: 9780691169521
- Editorial: Princeton University Press
- Fecha de la edición: 2022
- Lugar de la edición: Princeton (NJ). Estados Unidos de Norteamérica
- Encuadernación: Cartoné
- Medidas: 24 cm
- Nº Pág.: 656
- Idiomas: Inglés
Why the world's most resilient dictatorships are products of violent revolution
Revolution and Dictatorship explores why dictatorships born of social revolution-such as those in China, Cuba, Iran, the Soviet Union, and Vietnam-are extraordinarily durable, even in the face of economic crisis, large-scale policy failure, mass discontent, and intense external pressure. Few other modern autocracies have survived in the face of such extreme challenges. Drawing on comparative historical analysis, Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way argue that radical efforts to transform the social and geopolitical order trigger intense counterrevolutionary conflict, which initially threatens regime survival, but ultimately fosters the unity and state-building that supports authoritarianism.
Although most revolutionary governments begin weak, they challenge powerful domestic and foreign actors, often bringing about civil or external wars. These counterrevolutionary wars pose a threat that can destroy new regimes, as in the cases of Afghanistan and Cambodia. Among regimes that survive, however, prolonged conflicts give rise to a cohesive ruling elite and a powerful and loyal coercive apparatus. This leads to the downfall of rival organizations and alternative centers of power, such as armies, churches, monarchies, and landowners, and helps to inoculate revolutionary regimes against elite defection, military coups, and mass protest-three principal sources of authoritarian breakdown.
Looking at a range of revolutionary and nonrevolutionary regimes from across the globe, Revolution and Dictatorship shows why governments that emerge from violent conflict endure.
1 A Theory of Revolutionary Durability 1
PART I CLASSICAL REVOLUTIONS 43
2 The Revolutionary Origins of Soviet Durability 45
3 The Revolutionary Origins of Chinese Authoritarian Durability 85
4 The Durability of Mexico’s Revolutionary Regime 117
PART II NATIONAL LIBERATION REGIMES 155
5 Regime Origins and Diverging Paths in Vietnam, Algeria, and Ghana 157
PART III EXPL AINING VARIATION IN REVOLUTIONARY OUTCOMES 201
6 Radicalism and Durability: Cuba and Iran 203
7 Radical Failures: Early Deaths of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, the Khmer Rouge, and the Taliban 250
8 Accommodation and Instability: Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Guinea-Bissau 273
9 Conclusion 317