(This is an archived extract from the book Patterns of Power: Edition 2)
It is possible to have governments which can be described as partially authoritarian. Some have the structures which are associated with democracy, but have quelled opposition by force to become more authoritarian – as in several African examples.[1] And some authoritarian governments allow the people to vote, within constraints, as in Iran – which contains some of the trappings of a democracy in the elections for members of its parliament (the Majlis); the Supreme Council though, composed of clergy, has the right to disqualify candidates and it controls many aspects of power.[2]
Authoritarian regimes can be overthrown if there is sufficient unrest among the people, as was amply demonstrated in the ‘Arab Spring’ in 2011.[3]
© PatternsofPower.org, 2014
[1] Writing in Prospect magazine in September 2008, in an article entitled An alien inheritance, Richard Dowden described the problems of trying to apply Western-style democracy in Africa:
“Multi-party democracy has brought freedom of expression and a flourishing of civil society, but almost everywhere it tends towards political fragmentation and bitterly divided politics. Elections are manipulated and often violent.”
The article listed several recent examples of violence associated with elections: Uganda in 2001, Ethiopia in 2005, Congo in 2007, Kenya in 2007 and Zimbabwe in 2008. His book on the subject is entitled Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles.
The article was available in May 2014 at http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/analieninheritance/.
[2] On 29 August 2002, The New York Times published an article entitled Iran's President Trying to Limit Power of Clergy, which was available in May 2014 at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/29/world/iran-s-president-trying-to-limit-power-of-clergy.html.
[3] The 'Arab Spring' in 2011 demonstrated the mechanism by which protest can overthrow an unsatisfactory authoritarian government. An article on the Foreign Affairs website by Lisa Anderson, entitled Demystifying the Arab Spring, was available in May 2014 at http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67693/lisa-anderson/demystifying-the-arab-spring; its summary described the different origins of the protests:
“The patterns and demographics of the protests varied widely. The demonstrations in Tunisia spiraled toward the capital from the neglected rural areas, finding common cause with a once powerful but much repressed labor movement. In Egypt, by contrast, urbane and cosmopolitan young people in the major cities organized the uprisings. Meanwhile, in Libya, ragtag bands of armed rebels in the eastern provinces ignited the protests, revealing the tribal and regional cleavages that have beset the country for decades.”
In all three of these countries the protests toppled the incumbent regimes. The article also appeared in the Foreign Affairs/CFR eBook, The New Arab Revolt.