Cambridge University Press eBooks· 2016· Book chapter
Dictators and their Secret Police
- 356citations
- 2016year
Short summary
Autocrats use secret police to manage popular mobilization and defend against coups, with violence against civilians being a byproduct of this dilemma, according to new historical evidence.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Dictators face a dilemma between using secret police for popular mobilization control or coup prevention.
- Violence against civilians is a byproduct of autocrats attempting to resolve this coercive dilemma.
- The book utilizes new historical evidence to challenge existing theories on dictatorship and repression.
- It provides insights into the institutional and social foundations of authoritarian power through surveillance and coercion.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
How do dictators stay in power? When, and how, do they use repression to do so? Dictators and their Secret Police explores the role of the coercive apparatus under authoritarian rule in Asia - how these secret organizations originated, how they operated, and how their violence affected ordinary citizens. Greitens argues that autocrats face a coercive dilemma: whether to create internal security forces designed to manage popular mobilization, or defend against potential coup. Violence against civilians, she suggests, is a byproduct of their attempt to resolve this dilemma. Drawing on a wealth of new historical evidence, this book challenges conventional wisdom on dictatorship: what autocrats are threatened by, how they respond, and how this affects the lives and security of the millions under their rule. It offers an unprecedented view into the use of surveillance, coercion, and violence, and sheds new light on the institutional and social foundations of authoritarian power.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Cambridge University Press eBooks, 2016 · DOI ↗
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Field: History
HistoryArts and Humanities