Furious Autocrats: Protests, Repression, and Emotional Communication in Kazakhstan and Tunisia

This paper explores how authoritarian regimes mobilise emotional appeals as discursive tools to legitimise power and suppress dissent, focusing on the Kazakhstani and Tunisian regimes’ response to mass protests. It examines the rhetorical strategies employed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and President Ben Ali during two key moments of political unrest: the Arab Uprisings of 2010-2011 and the January 2022 protests. Through critical discourse analysis of public speeches, official statements, and state media coverage, the article traces how elites in two regimes framed protests as existential threats to national stability, sovereignty, and social order. By examining the articulation of fear, anger, and affection, the study investigates how emotional narratives function as mechanisms of authoritarian legitimation. Through a comparative analysis of the two regimes’ communicative strategies, the paper highlights that emotional narratives do not simply reflect regime reactions but actively shape political realities by producing affective meanings during crisis. The comparison between Kazakhstan and Tunisia reveals how emotions are mobilised across different authoritarian contexts, shaped by historical legacies, media environments, and leadership styles.