Why Do Populist Authoritarians Rarely Turn into Repressive Dictators?

Authors

Latin American and Iberian Institute

Files

Description

Most authoritarian regimes installed by populist chief executives do not become full-scale, repressive dictatorships. As an 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 marshaling 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). This talk was held via Zoom.

Publication Date

1-3-2025

City

Albuquerque

Recommended Citation

Latin American and Iberian Institute. "Why Do Populist Authoritarians Rarely Turn into Repressive Dictators?." (2025). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/laii_events/439