Associations under Authoritarian Rule - Supporters of Authoritarian Regimes?

Abstract

Whereas in recent years academic interest has been paid to the ambiguous roles that institutions such as parties, legislatures, elections play in terms of sustaining authoritarian rule, the role of associations and their potential contribution to the persistence of authoritarian regimes is still under-researched. The panel aims at testing the hypothesis that associations reproduce elements of the political context in which they exist, structure themselves accordingly, thus in various ways and to a varying degree and extent replicate patterns of authoritarian rule within their own organizations and within their relationship with various Governmental Organizations. In other words, associations on an individual, on an organizational and on a more general level of political structures might contribute to the persistence of authoritarian rule. The hypothesis implies that associations’ contributions vary according to the specifics of the structures of the respective political system; according to the type of association and the role this type of association plays within the respective political system; and according to the specifics and embeddedness of those associations and their members in various socio-cultural settings. If associations are key actors of civil society but not all of them are “schools of democracy”, then civil society could no longer be thought of exclusively in terms of mobilizing resistance and opposed to authoritarian regimes. The panel aims at attracting single-case studies and comparative papers, in particular papers focusing on post-socialist countries. Highly desirable would be single case studies and papers comparing cases from the Asian, Middle East and African region. Finally papers that address the problem how the relationship between associations and authoritarian regimes could be conceptualized would be highly welcomed.

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