Authoritarian and democratic regimes differ mainly in emphasis on anticipatory versus responsive repression
Evidence
In the line of facilitation, you have a similar choice between anticipation and response: actively recruit participants for performances of which you approve before the performances occur, or reward those who turn out after the fact. All effective rulers carry on some combination of the four strategies. But regimes differ in relative emphasis. Authoritarian regimes, for example, invest heavily in anticipatory repression, not simply waiting until someone does something wrong to put them down. We have seen Human Rights Watch slapping Morocco’s wrist for too much anticipatory repression. From the perspectives of democratic regimes, Morocco’s preventive measures against Islamist activists threaten democracy twice: in general by abridging rights to assembly, association, and speech, and in particular by reducing protections of minorities against arbitrary actions of governmental agents. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 442
Categorization
- XREF: This is exactly where Tilly supplies the regime-type matrix the reader is hunting; the double threat framing (shared rights + minority protection) is the closest Tilly comes to naming the asymmetry the reader wants to test. — connects to: Dynamic authoritarianism correlates with fascist and communist states more than democracies. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 681; Authoritarian measures can persist within nominally democratic structures via normalized crisis — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 7; Democracies are harder to build but also harder to destroy than authoritarian regimes (+6 more)
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 442
Broader Connections
- Authoritarian measures can persist within nominally democratic structures via normalized crisis
#complicates(0.78) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 7 - Authoritarianism predicts tolerance of government illegality against dissenters
#exemplifies(0.78) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 266 - Regime coercion weakly deters protest while dissident coercive capacity strongly enables rebellion
#qualifies(0.77) - Different types of threat may drive authoritarianism differently
#expands(0.76) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 833 - Democracies are harder to build but also harder to destroy than authoritarian regimes
#complicates(0.75) - Regime capacity and democracy jointly shape prevailing contentious repertoires.
#expands(0.75) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 533 - Higher regime capacity with some democratic freedoms produces intermediate contention
#qualifies(0.74) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 503 - Postcolonial democracies risk homegrown repressions after breaking with imposed rule
#exemplifies(0.73) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 711 - Dynamic authoritarianism correlates with fascist and communist states more than democracies.
#qualifies(0.72) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 681