How political regimes affect national cybersecurity: the polity flux effect

The confluence of political regimes and cybersecurity presents substantial potential and challenges in the rapidly evolving digital realm. This study investigates how different political systems – democracies, autocracies, and transitional regimes (anocracies) – influence national cybersecurity performance. By integrating fourteen renowned cybersecurity indices, such as the Global Cybersecurity Index and National Cyber Security Index, with three key measures of political regimes – Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), Freedom in the World Index, and polity2 score with regime durability – the research provides a comprehensive understanding of these dynamics. The study reveals that democracies typically exhibit stronger cybersecurity due to their transparent institutions and robust legal frameworks via various statistical analyses. While less effective overall, autocracies benefit from centralized control, allowing rapid implementation of cybersecurity measures. Anocracies face significant challenges, often posing the highest cyber risks to other states, and the “Polity Flux Effect on Cybersecurity” is introduced to describe their dynamic and unstable cybersecurity landscape. These findings highlight the critical role of stable democratic institutions in enhancing national cybersecurity and offer valuable insights for policymakers to strengthen legal and institutional frameworks during political transitions.