Revolution and Dictatorship Audiobook By Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way cover art

Revolution and Dictatorship

The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism

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Revolution and Dictatorship

By: Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way
Narrated by: Joe Barrett
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Revolution and Dictatorship explores why dictatorships born of social revolution—such as those in China, Cuba, Iran, the Soviet Union, and Vietnam—are extraordinarily durable, even in the face of economic crisis, large-scale policy failure, mass discontent, and intense external pressure. Few other modern autocracies have survived in the face of such extreme challenges. Drawing on comparative historical analysis, Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way argue that radical efforts to transform the social and geopolitical order trigger intense counterrevolutionary conflict, which initially threatens regime survival, but ultimately fosters the unity and state-building that supports authoritarianism.

Although most revolutionary governments begin weak, they challenge powerful domestic and foreign actors, often bringing about civil or external wars. These counterrevolutionary wars pose a threat that can destroy new regimes, as in the cases of Afghanistan and Cambodia. Among regimes that survive, however, prolonged conflicts give rise to a cohesive ruling elite and a powerful and loyal coercive apparatus. This leads to the downfall of rival organizations and alternative centers of power, such as armies, churches, and landowners, and helps to inoculate revolutionary regimes against elite defection, military coups, and mass protest—principal sources of authoritarian breakdown.

©2022 Princeton University Press (P)2022 Tantor
Comparative Fascism Ideologies & Doctrines Military Political Science Politics & Government Wars & Conflicts War Imperialism Colonial Period Interwar Period
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the review of each authorization regime was tedious but important to realize the many iterations and the eventual collapse

the life cycle of authoritarians

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