More violent state repression in hybrid regimes?

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between regime types and violent state repression, focusing on hybrid regimes that combine democratic and autocratic features. It reassesses the dominant perspectives in the literature that suggest either an inverted U-shaped or threshold relationship. Previous studies are characterized by several shortcomings, including conceptual unclarity, one-sided theoretical accounts, and limited data coverage. A novel empirical analysis revisits the relationship by employing new datasets that cover most countries over more than two centuries and offer relevant both continuous and categorical regime distinctions. The results do not lend support to any of the predominant perspectives saying that hybrid regimes are characterized by more state violence or that the full package of democratic rights needs to be fulfilled to have effect. Both when using relatively new continuous measures and capturing hybrid regimes based on ordered categorical distinctions, hybrid regimes exhibit intermediate levels of repression compared to full democracies and full autocracies. More generally, the level of violence tends to be lower, the more democratic the type of regime is. These results are relevant for the debate about endangered democracies as they offer nuance to debates about the consequences of different regime types for violent state repression.