The Good Fight James Loxton on Democracies and Dictators
Nov 18, 2025
In this engaging conversation, James Loxton, a Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the University of Sydney, delves into the intricacies of authoritarian regimes. He defines the big three types: military, single-party, and personalist. Loxton highlights how internal constraints, informal institutions, and elite purges shape leadership dynamics. They discuss the durability of regimes, challenges in governance, and the enduring value of democracy. The talk also examines the pitfalls of information in authoritarian states and what causes their eventual collapse.
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Authoritarianism Is A Broad Residual Category
- Authoritarianism is a broad residual category for all non-democratic regimes.
- Political scientists commonly group them into military, single-party, and personalist types to analyze important differences.
Democracy Is Historically Unusual
- Democracy is historically rare and modern standards are recent innovations.
- Ancient Athens would not meet our contemporary definition of democracy.
The Three Main Authoritarian Types
- Military regimes arise from coups and feature collective rule by armed forces.
- Single-party regimes monopolize elections while personalist regimes concentrate power in one leader and often build a cult of personality.
