BB: Zdravko Veljanov – Authoritarian Resurgence: Exploring Autocratization Episodes in Post-communist Countries
The new wave of autocratization is proving to be particularly durable in the post-communist region. Since 1995, there have been 17 autocratization episodes, and further 33 potential autocratization episodes. Two factors in particular have been pronounced in the literature as key factors for autocratization. Increased polarization and executive aggrandizement that creates conditions for corruption, clientelism and state capture. Exploring the mechanism of what takes place during an autocratization episode in the cases of Serbia and North Macedonia, the research aims to uncover patterns of restricting competition, development of clientelist networks between state/public agencies and businesses, that can eventually lead to state capture. Secondly, the research shows the deployment of polarizing rhetoric by autocratic incumbents that helps them cling to power. These two factors are facilitated by actions of international actors, that can help stabilize or boost the regime. Such processes erode the democratic features, turning the regimes into stabilitocracies.
Zdravko Veljanov is a visiting research fellow, spending the winter semester 2023/24 in Graz. He is an expert in area studies with a master’s degree in European Studies from the European University of Flensburg and the University of Southern Denmark and a political scientist with an MA degree in political science from the Central European University. Currently, he is an advanced doctoral candidate in comparative politics at the Central European University.
05.12.2023 13:00 – 14:00
Organizer
Zentrum für Südosteuropastudien, SOEGA & Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft
Venue:
Location: SR 111.41, BEETHOVENSTRASSE 8 4. OG 8010 GRAZ