Communist and Post-Communist Studies· 2021Q2
Varieties of Digital Authoritarianism
- 22citations
- Q2SCImago
- 2021year
Short summary
Digital authoritarianism is not monolithic; Russia's less centralized, reactive approach differs from China's comprehensive, proactive model, suggesting Russia's model may be more exportable.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Digital authoritarianism exhibits varied governance strategies, not a single model.
- China's model is comprehensive and proactive; Russia's is less centralized and reactive.
- Russia's reactive, less centralized model may be more easily exported than China's.
- The study applies an analytical framework to China and Russia, highlighting their differences.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Digital authoritarianism threatens the privacy and rights of Internet users worldwide, yet scholarship on this topic remains limited in analytical power and case selection. In this article, we introduce a comprehensive analytical framework to the field of Internet governance and apply it first, briefly, to the well-known case of China and then, in more depth, to the still-understudied Russian case. We identify the extent and relative centralization of Internet governance as well as proactive versus reactive approaches to governance as notable differences between the cases, highlighting variation among digital authoritarians’ governance strategies. We conclude that Russia’s Internet governance model is less comprehensive and consistent than China’s, but its components may be more easily exported to other political systems. We then consider whether recent changes to Russia’s Internet governance suggest that it could converge with the Chinese model over time.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 2021 · DOI ↗
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Field: Political Science and International Relations
Political Science and International RelationsSocial Sciences