Authoritarian Resilience: How Undemocratic Governors Persist In Argentina And Mexico

Abstract

The topic addressed is a relevant empirical problem that has seen significant development in political science over the last decade: the coexistence of a government democratic at the national level with undemocratic regimes at the subnational level . The latter are defined as electoral regimes that are neither completely authoritarian , since they are found within a democratic country that guarantees civil liberties and party competition through elections , nor totally democratic, because the capacity of the subnational opposition to electorally defeat the party in government is seriously diminished . The official advantage is obtained by the deployment of various informal and illegal tactics , such as fraudulent maneuvers in the counting of votes, media outlets linked to the ruling party, periodic alteration of electoral rules and co - optation and intimidation of opposition leaders , among others ( Giraudi , 2015 : 36 ) . It is important to note that the definition refers exclusively to the procedural or electoral aspect of democracy. That is, in undemocratic regimes, elections are not entirely free , competitive or fair . In this way, it differs from the concept of hybrid regimes used by some authors ( Gervasoni, 2010; 2011), since this is more general and could refer to democratic weakness both in access to government and in the exercise of it. The approach to democratic processes from a territorial perspective has focused mainly on authoritarian, hybrid or undemocratic subnational regimes , addressing the questions that seek to explain their survival within democratic countries and how they can be weakened and democratized. Basically, it is possible to distinguish two types of explanations : those that emphasize structure and those that focus on agency . In the former , Beyond the classic theory of modernization applied to the subnational level , rentism produced by fiscal federalism appears as an explanatory factor ( Gervasoni, 2010), especially in the case of Argentina. In turn , in the explanations centered on the agency , the focus of strategic interaction between the national government and the subnational governments stands out , the latter having as their central government the role of the state .