Conceptualizing Authoritarianism by Ivan Ermakoff (2025)

Authoritarianism evokes phenomenal realities of different kinds: rules, behaviors, institutional settings, representations, dispositions, and attitudes. Given this lack of fixed meaning, the present chapter addresses conceptual issues by considering designs, tools, and argumentative frameworks centered on authoritarian regimes. This practical lens highlights five modes of conceptualization defined as ways of articulating a type of understanding with an approach and a focus. Cast in ethical terms, the a priori mode relates autocracy to the deprivation of collective choice and capacity. Scale-based approaches measure the degree to which features deemed definitional of democracy are absent or depleted. A typological approach sorts out authoritarian polities by categorizing ways of capturing and managing state power. When we shift to dimensional thinking, the focus is on regime attributes mapping a space of variation. A generic understanding conceptualizes the genus of authoritarian power as unconditional, temporally unbounded and unaccountable. Delineating these five modes of conceptualization brings into relief contrasts, challenges, and complementarities.