The Routledge Handbook of Autocratization

The Routledge Handbook of Autocratization comprehensively and systematically explores the current understanding, and unchartered research paths, of autocratization.

With wide-reaching regional coverage and expert analysis from Asia, North and South America, Europa, the Middle East, and North Africa, this handbook reveals cross-country, and cross-regional, analysis and insights and presents in-depth explanations and consequences of autocratization. Arranged in five thematic parts, chapters explore the basic aspects of conceptualization, theorization, and measurement of autocratization; the role of various political and non-political actors as perpetrators, supporters, bystanders, or defenders of democracy against autocratization processes; and the consequences across various policy fields. Showcasing cutting-edge research developments, the handbook illustrates the deeply complex nature of the field, examining important topics in need of renewed consideration at a time of growing concerns for democracy and the global spread of authoritarian challenges to democracy.

The Routledge Handbook of Autocratization will be a key reference for those interested in, and studying authoritarianism, democratization, human rights, governance, democracy and more broadly comparative politics, and regional/area studies.

Chapter 2 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http: //www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Aurel Croissant is Professor at the Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Germany, and Visiting Professor at GSIS Ewha Womans University, South Korea.

Luca Tomini is FNRS Research Associate and Professor of Political Science at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium.