Life after Dictatorship
Authoritarian Successor Parties Worldwide

Launches a new research agenda on one of the most common but overlooked features of the democratization experience worldwide: authoritarian successor parties.

James Loxton (Edited by), Scott Mainwaring (Edited by)

9781108445412, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 September 2018

430 pages, 30 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.9 cm, 0.64 kg

'This volume represents an important contribution to the study of democratic transition and consolidation. We typically assume that successful democracies make sharp breaks from their authoritarian pasts. But James Loxton and Scott Mainwaring demonstrate conclusively that this is not the case. In fact, parties that emerge from authoritarian regimes - authoritarian successor parties - have been prominent in three quarters of third-wave democracies. Such parties have been voted back into office in over half of new democracies. While a lot has been written about individual cases in particular regions, this is the first volume to analyze this phenomenon globally. The chapters in this volume - written by the top political scientists in the world today - are path-breaking but also accessible to a broad audience inside and outside academia.' Lucan Way, University of Toronto

Life after Dictatorship launches a new research agenda on authoritarian successor parties worldwide. Authoritarian successor parties are parties that emerge from authoritarian regimes, but that operate after a transition to democracy. They are one of the most common but overlooked features of the global democratic landscape. They are major actors in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, and they have been voted back into office in over one-half of all third-wave democracies. This book presents a new set of terms, definitions, and research questions designed to travel across regions, and presents new data on these parties' prevalence and frequent return to power. With chapters from leading Africanists, Asianists, Europeanists, and Latin Americanists, it asks: why are authoritarian successor parties so common? Why are some more successful than others? And in what ways can they harm - or help - democracy?

Preface James Loxton and Scott Mainwaring
Introduction: authoritarian successor Parties Worldwide James Loxton
Part I. Why Do Authoritarian Successor Parties Exist (and Often Wins Elections)?: 1. Linkage strategies of authoritarian successor parties Herbet Kitschelt and Matthew Singer
2. Authoritarian successor parties in South Korea and Taiwan: authoritarian inheritance, organizational adaptation, and issue management T. J. Cheng and Teh-fu Huang
3. Personalistic authoritarian successor parties in Latin America James Loxton and Steven Levitsky
Part II. What Explains Variation in Authoritarian Successor Party Performane?: 4. Victims of their own success: the paradoxical fate of the communist successor parties Anna Grzymala-Busse
5. Authoritarian successor parties in Sub-Saharan Africa: into the wilderness and back again? Rachel Beatty Riedl
6. The survival of authoritarian successor parties in Africa: organizational legacies or competitive landscapes? Adrienne LaBas
7. The contrasting trajectories of Brazil's two authoritarian successor parties Timothy J. Power
Part III. What are the Effects of Authoritarian Successor Parties on Democracy?: 8. Mexico's PRI: the resilience of an authoritarian successor party and its consequences for democracy Gustavo A. Flores-Macias
9. Game for democracy: authoritarian successor parties in developmental Asia Dan Slater and Joseph Wong
10. Reluctant democrats: old regime conservative parties in democracy's first wave in Europe Daniel Ziblatt
Conclusion: life after democracy James Loxton.

Subject Areas: Political structures: totalitarianism & dictatorship [JPHX], Comparative politics [JPB]