The Legacy of Authoritarian Regimes – Political Culture, Institutions, and Democratisation

This workshop relates to two academic debates that are usually not in dialogue: (1) Authoritarian regimes and democratisation and (2) political behaviour and public opinion. We invite research that investigates the legacies of authoritarian regimes on political institutions and on civil society. The key question explored in this workshop is how authoritarian regimes affect the subsequent democratisation process. It is still contested in the literature whether periods of authoritarian rule have a lasting impact on a country’s political structure and culture and what the nature of this impact is. Moreover, there is still a gap in the literature that compares the legacies of different types of authoritarian regimes. For example, do one-party rule and military regimes differ in their long-term impact on society and political institutions? Though the study of authoritarian regimes is growing, we still know little about the legacy of dictatorships on their citizens and how this legacy might influence the development of a democratic political culture, which is central for democratic consolidation. We therefore encourage paper submissions especially for studies that focus on legacy impacts of previous authoritarian regimes on citizens' political attitudes and behaviour today. We believe that previous research has not paid enough attention to the long-term impact of citizens' formative experiences in non-democratic systems on individual political attitudes, values, and behaviour, as well as on the prospects of a democratic political culture in transitioning societies. The aim of this workshop is to provide a forum for researchers that study these questions from diverse angles and methodologies: 1. Substantive angles • Legacy effects on political institutions and civil society • Legacy effects on the democratisation process • Comparing different types of authoritarian regimes 2. Methodological issues • Large-N, comparative analysis versus small-N, cross-national studies versus case studies • Focusing on one type of regime versus comparing different types of regimes