Johannes Gerschewski
Biographic Data
| ID | 2011804 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Johannes Gerschewski |
| GIVEN NAMES | Johannes |
| FAMILY NAME | Gerschewski |
| SIGNATURE | GERSCHEWSKI J |
| AFFILIATIONS | WZB Berlin Social Science Center |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6994-3419 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 858 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
The democratic ideal under stress: Citizen commitment to democratic rights and procedures in challenging times
To what extent do citizens support democratic rights and procedures in the face of major societal challenges? Drawing on a Dahlian ideal of democracy, we exploit the context of the Covid-19 pandemic to address this question with two preregistered survey experiments covering 9,000 respondents in six countries (Germany, Hungary, Japan, Poland, South Korea, and Spain). A conjoint experiment on preferences for pandemic policies reveals that citizens …
How Does an Ideology Spread? Archival Evidence from an Extreme Case
This paper is interested in the spread of an autocratic ideology and the emergence of a societal belief. It is often assumed that the greater the capacities of an autocratic regime to inculcate an ideological belief into the minds and hearts of subordinate citizens, the more an autocratic ideology is shared in a given society. The extent of an ideological belief is explained by a direct and immediate function of its indoctrination capacities. The…
A Loyal Base: Support for Authoritarian Regimes in Times of Crisis
Does citizen belief in the non-instrumental principles of the political regime, such as strongman leadership, patriotism, or attachment to a charismatic leader, collectively known as normative support, help stabilize authoritarian regimes? While a large literature recognizes that authoritarian regimes depend on popular support to lower the costs of staying in power, existing research mainly views mass support for these regimes as instrumental, fu…
The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule
In The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule, Gerschewski argues that all autocracies must fulfil three conditions to survive: the co-optation of key elites into their inner sanctum, the repression of potential dissent, and popular legitimation. Yet, how these conditions complement each other depends on alternative logics: over-politicization and de-politicization. While the former aims at mobilizing people via inflating a friend-foe distinction, the lat…
Why It Matters What Autocrats Say: Assessing Competing Theories of Propaganda
This article investigates two accounts of political propaganda in autocratic regimes. One argues that propaganda’s content does not matter substantively and that propaganda is mostly a signal of the regime’s overwhelming power over citizens. A second argues that propaganda is substantively meaningful: autocrats may communicate strategically either by attracting attention through highlighting the regime’s strengths or by distracting attention away…
Two Logics of Autocratic Rule
Claiming the right to rule: Regime Legitimation Strategies From 1900 to 2019
Governments routinely justify why the regime over which they preside is entitled to rule. These claims to legitimacy are both an expression of and shape of how a rule is being exercised. In this paper, we introduce new expert-coded measures of regime legitimation strategies (RLS) for 183 countries in the world from 1900 to 2019. Country experts rated the extent to which governments justify their rule based onperformance, the person of the leader,…
Erosion or decay? Conceptualizing causes and mechanisms of democratic regression
Democratic regression has become a worrying phenomenon in the last years. Social science has provided a variety of explanations why democratic regimes have lost democratic regime quality. Against this backdrop, I take stock of the recent literature by putting forward two important analytical distinctions that we should make more explicit. First, I propose to classify our current explanations along the source where the cause for the malaise origin…
Explanations of Institutional Change: "Reflecting on a "Missing Diagonal
Previous research on institutional change has concentrated on two types of explanations. On one hand, the dualism of path dependency and critical junctures has advanced our understanding of how institutional change occurs due to sudden exogenous shocks. On the other hand, more recent critiques have established a better understanding of endogenous, gradual change. This article is motivated by observations that current research tends to overlook wh…
Crises and critical junctures in authoritarian regimes: Addressing uprisings’ temporalities and discontinuities
In this article, we aim at sharpening common understandings of the notion of political crisis to better explain the trajectories of authoritarian transformations during popular uprisings. We make three major claims. First, we propose a definition of crisis as brief moments of institutional fluidity and openness in which a process can take different directions. We delineate the crisis concept from the concept of critical junctures and outline how …
Adapting or Freezing? Ideological Reactions of Communist Regimes to a Post-Communist World
This article studies the ideological reactions of communist regimes to the advent of a post-communist world. It examines two cases of reformed communist regimes (China and Vietnam) with two relatively unreformed cases (North Korea and Cuba) to understand different legitimation strategies employed during and after the downfall of the Soviet Union. Theoretically, the article compares two ideal-type approaches to ideology in autocratic regimes. The …
How Do Inclusionary and Exclusionary Autocracies Affect Ordinary People
We propose a distinction between inclusionary and exclusionary autocratic ruling strategies and develop novel theoretical propositions on the legacy that these strategies leave on citizens’ political attitudes once the autocratic regime broke down. Using data of 1.3 million survey respondents from 71 countries and hierarchical age–period–cohort models, we estimate between and within cohort differences in citizens’ democratic support. We find that…
Legitimacy in Autocracies: Oxymoron or Essential Feature
Legitimacy is a key concept in political science. It has deep normative roots in democratic theory and refers usually to righteous, just, fair, and therefore acceptable rule. However, non-democracies also try to create a following among their citizens. They also engage in justifying their rule through politicization, be it of religion, ethnicity, or ideologies ranging from left-wing communism to right-wing nationalism. Against this backdrop, I po…
Legitimacy and protest under authoritarianism: Explaining student mobilization in Egypt and Morocco during the Arab uprisings
Political protests constitute a major concern to authoritarian regimes. Existing research has argued that they indicate a lack of regime legitimacy. However, empirical evidence on the relationship between legitimacy and protest participation remains rare. Based on new survey data from Morocco and Egypt, this study investigates whether legitimacy played a significant role in student mobilization during the 2011 uprisings. In doing so, we first dev…
Crisis in Autocratic Regimes
What makes autocratic regimes vulnerable? Why, in times of crisis, do some of these regimes break down while others weather the storm? This is the puzzle addressed in Crisis in Autocratic Regimes. Taking a long-term perspective, the authors focus not on sudden shocks and ruptures, but instead on gradual processes of disintegration as they unfold over time
Die drei Säulen und das Überleben elektoraler Autokratien – Eine Replik
What autocracies say (and what citizens hear): Proposing Four Mechanisms of Autocratic Legitimation
Autocratic governments make claims about why they are entitled to rule. Some autocracies are more talkative than others, but all regimes say something about why they deserve power. This article takes seriously these efforts by introducing and interrogating the concept of autocratic legitimation. After engaging in a definitional discussion, it traces the development of autocratic legitimation in modern political science by identifying major turnin…
The three pillars of stability: Legitimation, Repression, and Co-Optation in Autocratic Regimes
Why do some autocracies remain stable while others collapse? This article presents a theoretical framework that seeks to explain the longevity of autocracies by referring to three pillars of stability: legitimation, repression, and co-optation. These three causal factors are derived by distilling and synthesizing the main arguments of classic and more recent research efforts. Particular emphasis is paid to re-incorporate legitimation in the expla…
The three pillars of stability: Legitimation, Repression, and Co-Optation in Autocratic Regimes
Why do some autocracies remain stable while others collapse? This article presents a theoretical framework that seeks to explain the longevity of autocracies by referring to three pillars of stability: legitimation, repression, and co-optation. These three causal factors are derived by distilling and synthesizing the main arguments of classic and more recent research efforts. Particular emphasis is paid to re-incorporate legitimation in the expla…
What autocracies say (and what citizens hear): Proposing Four Mechanisms of Autocratic Legitimation
Autocratic governments make claims about why they are entitled to rule. Some autocracies are more talkative than others, but all regimes say something about why they deserve power. This article takes seriously these efforts by introducing and interrogating the concept of autocratic legitimation. After engaging in a definitional discussion, it traces the development of autocratic legitimation in modern political science by identifying major turnin…
Legitimacy in Autocracies: Oxymoron or Essential Feature
Legitimacy is a key concept in political science. It has deep normative roots in democratic theory and refers usually to righteous, just, fair, and therefore acceptable rule. However, non-democracies also try to create a following among their citizens. They also engage in justifying their rule through politicization, be it of religion, ethnicity, or ideologies ranging from left-wing communism to right-wing nationalism. Against this backdrop, I po…
Claiming the right to rule: Regime Legitimation Strategies From 1900 to 2019
Governments routinely justify why the regime over which they preside is entitled to rule. These claims to legitimacy are both an expression of and shape of how a rule is being exercised. In this paper, we introduce new expert-coded measures of regime legitimation strategies (RLS) for 183 countries in the world from 1900 to 2019. Country experts rated the extent to which governments justify their rule based onperformance, the person of the leader,…
Erosion or decay? Conceptualizing causes and mechanisms of democratic regression
Democratic regression has become a worrying phenomenon in the last years. Social science has provided a variety of explanations why democratic regimes have lost democratic regime quality. Against this backdrop, I take stock of the recent literature by putting forward two important analytical distinctions that we should make more explicit. First, I propose to classify our current explanations along the source where the cause for the malaise origin…
Explanations of Institutional Change: "Reflecting on a "Missing Diagonal
Previous research on institutional change has concentrated on two types of explanations. On one hand, the dualism of path dependency and critical junctures has advanced our understanding of how institutional change occurs due to sudden exogenous shocks. On the other hand, more recent critiques have established a better understanding of endogenous, gradual change. This article is motivated by observations that current research tends to overlook wh…
How Do Inclusionary and Exclusionary Autocracies Affect Ordinary People
We propose a distinction between inclusionary and exclusionary autocratic ruling strategies and develop novel theoretical propositions on the legacy that these strategies leave on citizens’ political attitudes once the autocratic regime broke down. Using data of 1.3 million survey respondents from 71 countries and hierarchical age–period–cohort models, we estimate between and within cohort differences in citizens’ democratic support. We find that…
Adapting or Freezing? Ideological Reactions of Communist Regimes to a Post-Communist World
This article studies the ideological reactions of communist regimes to the advent of a post-communist world. It examines two cases of reformed communist regimes (China and Vietnam) with two relatively unreformed cases (North Korea and Cuba) to understand different legitimation strategies employed during and after the downfall of the Soviet Union. Theoretically, the article compares two ideal-type approaches to ideology in autocratic regimes. The …
Legitimacy and protest under authoritarianism: Explaining student mobilization in Egypt and Morocco during the Arab uprisings
Political protests constitute a major concern to authoritarian regimes. Existing research has argued that they indicate a lack of regime legitimacy. However, empirical evidence on the relationship between legitimacy and protest participation remains rare. Based on new survey data from Morocco and Egypt, this study investigates whether legitimacy played a significant role in student mobilization during the 2011 uprisings. In doing so, we first dev…
A Loyal Base: Support for Authoritarian Regimes in Times of Crisis
Does citizen belief in the non-instrumental principles of the political regime, such as strongman leadership, patriotism, or attachment to a charismatic leader, collectively known as normative support, help stabilize authoritarian regimes? While a large literature recognizes that authoritarian regimes depend on popular support to lower the costs of staying in power, existing research mainly views mass support for these regimes as instrumental, fu…
Why It Matters What Autocrats Say: Assessing Competing Theories of Propaganda
This article investigates two accounts of political propaganda in autocratic regimes. One argues that propaganda’s content does not matter substantively and that propaganda is mostly a signal of the regime’s overwhelming power over citizens. A second argues that propaganda is substantively meaningful: autocrats may communicate strategically either by attracting attention through highlighting the regime’s strengths or by distracting attention away…
Crises and critical junctures in authoritarian regimes: Addressing uprisings’ temporalities and discontinuities
In this article, we aim at sharpening common understandings of the notion of political crisis to better explain the trajectories of authoritarian transformations during popular uprisings. We make three major claims. First, we propose a definition of crisis as brief moments of institutional fluidity and openness in which a process can take different directions. We delineate the crisis concept from the concept of critical junctures and outline how …
The three pillars of stability: Legitimation, Repression, and Co-Optation in Autocratic Regimes
Why do some autocracies remain stable while others collapse? This article presents a theoretical framework that seeks to explain the longevity of autocracies by referring to three pillars of stability: legitimation, repression, and co-optation. These three causal factors are derived by distilling and synthesizing the main arguments of classic and more recent research efforts. Particular emphasis is paid to re-incorporate legitimation in the expla…
Crisis in Autocratic Regimes
What makes autocratic regimes vulnerable? Why, in times of crisis, do some of these regimes break down while others weather the storm? This is the puzzle addressed in Crisis in Autocratic Regimes. Taking a long-term perspective, the authors focus not on sudden shocks and ruptures, but instead on gradual processes of disintegration as they unfold over time
Die drei Säulen und das Überleben elektoraler Autokratien – Eine Replik
What autocracies say (and what citizens hear): Proposing Four Mechanisms of Autocratic Legitimation
Autocratic governments make claims about why they are entitled to rule. Some autocracies are more talkative than others, but all regimes say something about why they deserve power. This article takes seriously these efforts by introducing and interrogating the concept of autocratic legitimation. After engaging in a definitional discussion, it traces the development of autocratic legitimation in modern political science by identifying major turnin…
Legitimacy in Autocracies: Oxymoron or Essential Feature
Legitimacy is a key concept in political science. It has deep normative roots in democratic theory and refers usually to righteous, just, fair, and therefore acceptable rule. However, non-democracies also try to create a following among their citizens. They also engage in justifying their rule through politicization, be it of religion, ethnicity, or ideologies ranging from left-wing communism to right-wing nationalism. Against this backdrop, I po…
Legitimacy and protest under authoritarianism: Explaining student mobilization in Egypt and Morocco during the Arab uprisings
Political protests constitute a major concern to authoritarian regimes. Existing research has argued that they indicate a lack of regime legitimacy. However, empirical evidence on the relationship between legitimacy and protest participation remains rare. Based on new survey data from Morocco and Egypt, this study investigates whether legitimacy played a significant role in student mobilization during the 2011 uprisings. In doing so, we first dev…
Crises and critical junctures in authoritarian regimes: Addressing uprisings’ temporalities and discontinuities
In this article, we aim at sharpening common understandings of the notion of political crisis to better explain the trajectories of authoritarian transformations during popular uprisings. We make three major claims. First, we propose a definition of crisis as brief moments of institutional fluidity and openness in which a process can take different directions. We delineate the crisis concept from the concept of critical junctures and outline how …
Adapting or Freezing? Ideological Reactions of Communist Regimes to a Post-Communist World
This article studies the ideological reactions of communist regimes to the advent of a post-communist world. It examines two cases of reformed communist regimes (China and Vietnam) with two relatively unreformed cases (North Korea and Cuba) to understand different legitimation strategies employed during and after the downfall of the Soviet Union. Theoretically, the article compares two ideal-type approaches to ideology in autocratic regimes. The …
How Do Inclusionary and Exclusionary Autocracies Affect Ordinary People
We propose a distinction between inclusionary and exclusionary autocratic ruling strategies and develop novel theoretical propositions on the legacy that these strategies leave on citizens’ political attitudes once the autocratic regime broke down. Using data of 1.3 million survey respondents from 71 countries and hierarchical age–period–cohort models, we estimate between and within cohort differences in citizens’ democratic support. We find that…
Claiming the right to rule: Regime Legitimation Strategies From 1900 to 2019
Governments routinely justify why the regime over which they preside is entitled to rule. These claims to legitimacy are both an expression of and shape of how a rule is being exercised. In this paper, we introduce new expert-coded measures of regime legitimation strategies (RLS) for 183 countries in the world from 1900 to 2019. Country experts rated the extent to which governments justify their rule based onperformance, the person of the leader,…
Erosion or decay? Conceptualizing causes and mechanisms of democratic regression
Democratic regression has become a worrying phenomenon in the last years. Social science has provided a variety of explanations why democratic regimes have lost democratic regime quality. Against this backdrop, I take stock of the recent literature by putting forward two important analytical distinctions that we should make more explicit. First, I propose to classify our current explanations along the source where the cause for the malaise origin…
Explanations of Institutional Change: "Reflecting on a "Missing Diagonal
Previous research on institutional change has concentrated on two types of explanations. On one hand, the dualism of path dependency and critical junctures has advanced our understanding of how institutional change occurs due to sudden exogenous shocks. On the other hand, more recent critiques have established a better understanding of endogenous, gradual change. This article is motivated by observations that current research tends to overlook wh…
Why It Matters What Autocrats Say: Assessing Competing Theories of Propaganda
This article investigates two accounts of political propaganda in autocratic regimes. One argues that propaganda’s content does not matter substantively and that propaganda is mostly a signal of the regime’s overwhelming power over citizens. A second argues that propaganda is substantively meaningful: autocrats may communicate strategically either by attracting attention through highlighting the regime’s strengths or by distracting attention away…
Two Logics of Autocratic Rule
The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule
In The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule, Gerschewski argues that all autocracies must fulfil three conditions to survive: the co-optation of key elites into their inner sanctum, the repression of potential dissent, and popular legitimation. Yet, how these conditions complement each other depends on alternative logics: over-politicization and de-politicization. While the former aims at mobilizing people via inflating a friend-foe distinction, the lat…
How Does an Ideology Spread? Archival Evidence from an Extreme Case
This paper is interested in the spread of an autocratic ideology and the emergence of a societal belief. It is often assumed that the greater the capacities of an autocratic regime to inculcate an ideological belief into the minds and hearts of subordinate citizens, the more an autocratic ideology is shared in a given society. The extent of an ideological belief is explained by a direct and immediate function of its indoctrination capacities. The…
A Loyal Base: Support for Authoritarian Regimes in Times of Crisis
Does citizen belief in the non-instrumental principles of the political regime, such as strongman leadership, patriotism, or attachment to a charismatic leader, collectively known as normative support, help stabilize authoritarian regimes? While a large literature recognizes that authoritarian regimes depend on popular support to lower the costs of staying in power, existing research mainly views mass support for these regimes as instrumental, fu…
The democratic ideal under stress: Citizen commitment to democratic rights and procedures in challenging times
To what extent do citizens support democratic rights and procedures in the face of major societal challenges? Drawing on a Dahlian ideal of democracy, we exploit the context of the Covid-19 pandemic to address this question with two preregistered survey experiments covering 9,000 respondents in six countries (Germany, Hungary, Japan, Poland, South Korea, and Spain). A conjoint experiment on preferences for pandemic policies reveals that citizens …
Political science (15 works) · Law (13 works) · Politics (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Democracy (12 works) · Political Conflict and Governance (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Political economy (10 works) · Autocracy (9 works) · Economics (9 works)