Do All Bad Things Go Together? Electoral Authoritarianism and the Consequences of Political Change Short of Democratisation

The article surveys the literature on electoral authoritarianism, paying special attention to the social consequences of the phenomenon. Autocrats have learnt to use elections, legislatures and multipartyism to their own advantage. Hence, nominally democratic institutions can turn into instruments of authoritarian consolidation, rather than citizen emancipation. Challenging this overly pessimistic scenario, recent research reveals that bad things do not necessarily go together. Electoral authoritarian rulers have both the incentives and the capabilities to improve citizen living conditions. Political change short of democratisation, that is, transition from closed to electoral forms of authoritarian rule, may thus generate mutual returns, and benefit both rulers and citizens, at least from a strictly socio-economic viewpoint. Yet this area of study is only in its infancy. The paper identifies and discusses a few issues that future research should address.