Why Do Populist Authoritarians Rarely Turn into Repressive Dictators?

Thursday, November 07, 2024 | 03:30 pm Ortega Reading Room (third floor) About: Join LAII, the UNM Department of Political Science, and the UNM International Studies Institute for a discussion about authoritarinism in Latin America led by Professor Weyland. Most authoritarian regimes installed by populist chief executives do not become full-scale, repressive dictatorships. As explanation, scholars commonly highlight the charismatic appeal of populist leaders: Because they command voluntary mass support, they do not need harsh political coercion. While corroborating this argument, the talk highlights a crucial complementary factor: Populist chief executives have difficulty marshalling large-scale political repression. After all, their insistence on personalistic autonomy creates aversion among the military institution, which is unwilling to back the imposition of harsh autocracy by populist leaders, as an examination of contemporary Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, and Peru shows. Kurt Weyland is the Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Besides many journal articles, he has published several books, including Assault on Democracy: Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism during the Interwar Years (Cambridge, 2021); and most recently Democracy’s Resilience to Populism’s Threat (Cambridge, 2024). Notes: This event is free and open to the public.