Authoritarian Gravity Centers

Autocracies not only resist the global spread of democracy but are sources of autocratic influence and pressure. This book presents a conceptual model to understand, assess, and explain the promotion and diffusion of authoritarian elements.Employing a cross-regional approach, leading experts empirically test the concept of authoritarian gravity centers (AGCs), defined as "regimes that constitute a force of attraction and contagion for countries in geopolitical proximity." With an analysis extending across Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Asia, these AGCs are shown to be effective as active promoters (push) or as neutral sources of attraction (pull). The authors contend that the influence of exogenous factors, along with international and regional contexts for the transformation of regime types, is vital to understanding and analyzing the transmission of autocratic institutional settings, ideas, norms, procedures, and practices, thus explaining the regional clustering of autocracies. It is the regional context in which external actors can influence authoritarian processes most effectively.Authoritarian Gravity Centers is a vibrant and comprehensive contribution to the growing field of autocratization, which will be of great interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students of comparative area studies, illiberalism, international politics, and studies of democracy.

"What accounts for the recent spread of autocracy in the world? This important book develops a systematic conceptualization of the 'attraction' exerted by powerful authoritarian regimes and demonstrates its analytical usefulness through well-chosen and thoroughly researched case studies. An interesting guide to understanding democracy's current predicament!"Kurt Weyland, Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts, University of Texas at Austin"Based on painstaking research in different regions of the world, this thought-provoking set of studies provides new explanations for the regional clustering of autocracies."Marlies Glassius, Professor of International Relations, University of Amsterdam, "What accounts for the recent spread of autocracy in the world? This important book develops a systematic conceptualization of the 'attraction' exerted by powerful authoritarian regimes and demonstrates its analytical usefulness through well-chosen and thoroughly researched case studies. An interesting guide to understanding democracy's current predicament!"Kurt Weyland, Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts, University of Texas at Austin"Based on painstaking research in different regions of the world, this thought-provoking set of studies provides new explanations for the regional clustering of autocracies."Marlies Glassius, Professor of International Relations, University of Amsterdam

Marianne Kneuer is Professor for Political Science, Director of the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Hildesheim, Germany and current President of International Political Science Association (IPSA). Her research interests include studying comparative regime studies, quality of democracy, and democratization, especially the international dimension of democratization and of autocratization.Thomas Demmelhuber is Professor of Middle East Politics and Society at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. Demmelhuber’s research focuses on state, power, and politics in the Middle East from a comparative perspective, including that of international actors such as the European Union.