Bureaucratic Authoritarian Regimes and Their Path to Democracy

Do bureaucratic authoritarian regimes democratize in a specific way and why does this matter? This thesis looks at bureaucratic authoritarian regimes and their characteristics as well as their pathway to democracy. Bureaucratic authoritarian regimes are a specific type of authoritarian regime characterized by having a government made up of highly bureaucratized officials and focusing on industrializing the economy. Bureaucratic authoritarian regimes democratize by the population inciting rebellion against the leader and, subsequently, the regime making democratic concessions. Eventually, the democratic concessions made by the leader causes the regime to lose power and ultimately democratize. This process occurred in numerous countries in Latin America, including Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, as well as East Asia, including South Korea, Indonesia, and the Philippines. This model is important because it can theorize how current bureaucratic authoritarian regimes, such as Russia, will eventually democratize.