SIO508: The Data Shows That Authoritarianism Is Very Often Successfully Reversed. Yes, Really.

About this episode

The episode discusses how authoritarianism can often be successfully reversed through democratic actions, supported by a decade of academic research.

“Yes we can” vote and protest our way out of authoritarianism. It’s a classic case of academic literature never making it to mainstream consumption. Hang around social media long enough and you’ll hear that we’re basically screwed. A complete fascist take over is either extremely likely, inevitable, or it’s already here. And there’s not much we can do about it. Unless some other country invades us, we’ll be waiting for a civil war or a bloody military coup to hopefully maybe turn things around. That’s what history teaches us, right? Literally the opposite. An incredible data set that a team of thousands of academics have been assembling for over a decade provides a unique opportunity to examine these questions with fresh eyes. To look at wannabe dictators and see how many succeeded, how many eventually lost power, how democracy returned (if ever), and why. With this systematic approach, we see that strengthened democracy specifically because of authoritarian episodes is increasingly common. In fact, in the last 30 years it’s the most common response to autocratization, and most often achieved by internal democratic actors. Taking this into account, events once viewed as episodes…

People in this episode

Guest: Jenessa

Topics covered

• authoritarianism
• democracy
• civil resistance
• academic literature
• political history

Keywords

• authoritarianism
• democracy
• civil resistance
• academic research
• political change

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: seriouspod.com

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