Hybrid political regimes: qualified democratic and authoritarian systems. How they have been conceived, categorised and made operational within the different types of political regimes.

Authors

  • INMACULADA SZMOLKA VIDA

Keywords:

Political regimes, hybrid regimes, democracy, authoritarianism, typologies.

Abstract

Most political regimes in the world today are neither clearly democratic nor completely authoritarian. Rather, they contain some elements of both democracy and authoritarianism. This new political regime category has been conceptualized and operationalized in very different ways, but perhaps in a non satisfactory way. The aim of this article is to offer a theoretical and methodological framework on which the researcher may conduct a comparative analysis of political regimes. To this end, first we analyze the most important theoretical contributions written about political regimes which are considered to be neither fully democratic nor absolutely autocratic. Second, we offer a definition of hybrid political regimes, and of their characteristics. Third, we present a general typology of political regimes which takes into account two main kinds of hybrid regimes and different subtypes. Finally, we suggest a way of operationalizing categories of political regimes using an own methodology.

Published

2010-03-22

Issue

Section

ARTICLES