Скачать или смотреть Book Talk | Elections, Protest, and Authoritarian Regime Stability: Russia 2008–2020

In her latest book, Regina Smyth examines how electoral competition matters to the Putin regime, and how that competition leaves the regime more vulnerable to opposition challenges than is perceived in the West. Using original data and analysis, Smyth demonstrates how even weak political opposition can force autocratic incumbents to rethink strategy and find compromises in order to win elections. Smyth explains the tactics used to create regime-friendly majorities, including disinformation, symbolic politics, social benefits, repression, and falsification. During her book talk, she will explain the stresses and challenges of maintaining an electoral authoritarian regime, and how seemingly stable authoritarian systems can fall quickly to popular challenges even when the opposition is weak. She will explain how these challenges fit in the context of the state’s brutal repression of opposition forces in the 2021 elections and in the aftermath of these elections, scheduled for September 17.