Date of Completion

2015

Thesis Type

College of Arts and Science Honors

Department

Political Science

First Advisor

Peter VonDoepp

Keywords

Authoritarianism, Regime Support, Legitimacy, Military Rule, Strongman Rule, Political Culture

Abstract

In this thesis, I investigate the sources of differing levels of support for the idea of an authoritarian regime across new democracies in Latin America, Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe. Various cross-national surveys demonstrate that in some countries, the population is quite hesitant to embrace authoritarian alternatives while in others there is a strong desire for military or strongman rule. Beginning with insights from the literature, I investigate the impact of the economic system, the nature of politics and the cultural landscape at the regional level. The investigation then turns to a smaller-scale country analysis of Ukraine followed by a comparative study of Nicaragua and Guatemala. This thesis identifies many region specific drivers of authoritarian support and finds that it may be a phenomenon best investigated at the country level, paying particular attention to country-specific contextual factors.

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