Abstract
As we enter the twenty-first century, it has become clear that almost half the nations in the world are nondemocratic. Additionally almost 15% of them are considered autocratic in nature, meaning that state, or leader of the state, has consolidated power and popular interests are not essential to the preservation of that power. Autocratic behavior, however, is studied far less frequently than democratic behavior (Pew Research Center 2019). This paper examines the motivations behind autocratic leaders’ economic policy decisions, differentiating based on autocracy type classification, focusing specifically on personalist autocracies and party-led autocracies. Using two states, the People’s Republic of China and the Syrian Arab Republic, as representatives of these classifications, a case study is conducted to examine the success of state-led economic liberalization initiatives and the mechanisms behind such success, or lack thereof.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Liberalization, Globalization, Non-democracies, Selectorate Theory, Autocracy, Trade, Foreign Direct Investment
