Left-Wing Authoritarianism: The Marxists and the Machiavellians

This presentation distinguishes left-wing authoritarianism from right-wing authoritarianism, and further disaggregates left-wing authoritarian regimes into Marxist and Machiavellian subtypes. The central argument is that left-wing regimes exhibit a core psychological orientation toward securing collective gains, while right-wing regimes predominantly draw support from a shared desire to crush collective threats. Although left-wing regimes always evolve and typically decay over time, their origins in desperate popular struggles to overturn entrenched hierarchies make them lastingly different from regimes with right-wing or non-ideological origins. Examples are offered from across the globe and from before the Cold War to the present, but primarily from Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa.

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Dan Slater is Professor of Political Science, Ronald and Eileen Weiser Professor of Emerging Democracies, and Director of the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies (WCED) at the University of Michigan. He specializes in the politics and history of democracy and dictatorship, with a regional focus on Southeast Asia. He is the author of Ordering Power: Contentious Politics and Authoritarian Leviathans in Southeast Asia (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics, 2010) and coauthor of Coercive Distribution (Cambridge Elements Series on the Politics of Development, 2018). His published articles can be found in disciplinary journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, American Journal of Sociology, Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, International Organization, Journal of Democracy, Perspectives on Politics, Studies in Comparative International Development, and World Politics.