POLI 227 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Social Dynamics, Moral Authority, Authoritarianism

• School: McGill University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLI 227
• Professor: Philip Oxhorn

Document Summary

Authoritarianism and its adversaries in the arab world poli227 reading notes. Authoritarianism, more than just the absence of democracy, but has its own presence: of police, jails, fear: study of this presence. Four central themes that are recurring: relaionship between economic change and paterns of state control. Almost inevitable inverse relaionship with economic development and repression: relaionship between social-structural diversity and level of state control. Importance of classes and class coaliions, of organized social groups and state eforts to contain them in shaping poliical outcomes. Rising repressive insituions: importance of insituions of repression in sustaining state violence. Once repressive insituions are established, they can be remarkably resilient and play an independent role in sustaining authoritarianism: theme of the role of ideological appeals in sustaining authoritarianism. Appeal to tradiion or naionalism to jusify state violence, seen as deliberate atempts to deal with a crisis of legiimacy.