Dictators and Their Subjects: Authoritarian Attitudinal Effects and Legacies

• Published date: 01 October 2020
• Date: 01 October 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0010414020926203
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414020926203

Comparative Political Studies

2020, Vol. 53(12) 1839 –1860

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0010414020926203

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Article

Dictators and Their

Subjects: Authoritarian

Attitudinal Effects and

Legacies

Anja Neundorf1 and Grigore Pop-Eleches2

Abstract

This introductory essay outlines the key themes of the special issue on the

long-term impact of autocracies on the political attitudes and behavior of their

subjects. Here, we highlight several important areas of theoretical and empirical

refinements, which can provide a more nuanced picture of the process through

which authoritarian attitudinal legacies emerge and persist. First, we define

the nature of attitudinal legacies and their driving mechanisms, developing

a framework of competing socialization. Second, we use the competing

socialization framework to explain two potential sources of heterogeneity

in attitudinal and behavioral legacies: varieties of institutional features of

authoritarian regimes, which affect the nature of regime socialization efforts;

and variations across different subgroups of (post-)authoritarian citizens,

which reflect the nature and strength of alternative socialization efforts. This

new framework can help us to better understand contradictory findings in this

emerging literature as well as set a new agenda for future research.

Keywords

authoritarian regimes, political behavior, indoctrination, authoritarian

legacies

1University of Glasgow, UK

2Princeton University, NJ, USA

Corresponding Author:

Anja Neundorf, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow, Adam Smith

Building, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.

Email: anja.neundorf@glasgow.ac.uk

926203CPSXXX10.1177/0010414020926203Comparative Political StudiesNeundorf and Pop-Eleches

research-article2020

1840 Comparative Political Studies 53(12)

Introduction

Today, about half of the world’s population lives in either closed or electoral

authoritarian regimes.1 Another 40% live in countries, which experienced

autocratic periods in the last 80 years. Taken together, nine out of 10 people

in the world today had direct or indirect exposure to authoritarian regimes.2

Crucially, there is widespread agreement and much anecdotal evidence that

this experience has shaped—often in dramatic and lasting ways—the atti-

tudes and behavior of individuals living under such regimes, often for long

after the regime has been overthrown. Yet, we have surprisingly limited

knowledge of the mechanisms through which authoritarian attitudinal and

behavioral legacies emerge and persist. This special issue proposes a new

framework and research agenda for a more systematic study of authoritarian

attitudinal legacies and brings together four papers that contribute to several

key dimensions of this emerging research agenda.

Although in the last two decades there has been a significant revival in the

study of authoritarian legacies, the bulk of this literature has focused on

aggregate outcomes, such as institutions and elite actors, especially political

parties.3 These issues are undoubtedly very important for understanding post-

authoritarian politics, including the prospects for successful democratization

and democratic survival, as well as many other aspects of policy making in

former authoritarian countries. However, we know from the democratization

literature that public support, a democratic political culture, and an active

citizenry are also fundamental for the survival of democracy (e.g., Booth &

Seligson, 2009; Claassen, 2020; Diamond, 1999; Norris, 1999). Similarly,

the political attitudes of citizens matter greatly for the types of economic and

social policies that we can expect to emerge from the democratic process.

If citizens’ political preferences and behavior are crucial for understanding

the resilience and functioning of democracy, it is important to investigate

how these are formed. Although this question has received considerable

attention in established democracies (e.g., Alvarez & Brehm, 2002; Jennings,

1989; Jennings & Markus, 1984; Zaller, 1992), in a post-authoritarian context

an important part of the answer hinges on understanding how political atti-

tudes and behavior are shaped by the authoritarian past. The articles in this

special issue contribute to a small (but growing) set of studies focused more

squarely on the impact of authoritarian regimes on individual political atti-

tudes and behavior.

At the most basic level, we can think of authoritarian attitudinal legacies

as consisting of two necessary steps. The first step is for authoritarian regimes

to shape the attitudes and behavior of their citizens. The second step is for

these effects to persist across a regime divide, that is, after the end of the