Autocracy Promotion

Abstract By analogy with democracy promotion, this chapter explores the concept of autocracy promotion, referring to policy measures that have the potential to influence another country’s political system with a view to hampering democratization processes or to fostering autocratic regimes. Initially, it is explained that, although autocracy promotion empirically represents nothing new, the term only entered the scientific discourse following the colour revolutions in the former Soviet Union. Subsequently, a narrow and a wide definition of autocracy promotion are presented and illustrated with examples. Political autocracy promotion is focused on potential mobilization events like elections or mass protests and employs the same mechanisms that autocrats employ internally to consolidate their power: they co-opt or suppress the opposition and manipulate public opinion in favour of the incumbent. In contrast, development-oriented autocracy promotion encompasses all measures that potentially enhance the performance of a non-democratic government, thus helping it to stay in power.