Chapter 6 Why Authoritarian Parties? The Regime Party as an ...

CHAPTER 6
repression, and maintains political control over appointments. The primary role of the latter
two organizationalfeaturesistoenhance theeffectiveness withwhich hierarchical assignment
of service and benefits generates incentives for party members to remain loyal and provide
costly political service. Although the three organizational features could be in principle
administered inisolation, withinseparateinstitutions, theircomplementarity createsbenefits
to their coordination and management within a single institution – the regime party.
Why do not all dictatorships establish and maintain a regime-sanctioned party? By
examining the political logic that underlies the functioning of authoritarian parties, we also
gain insight into the limits of party-based cooptation and control. The analysis in this
chapter implies that the effective operation of the three organizational features that I have
discussed requires that the regime provide partisan access to a large number of political,
economic, and social appointments and thus channel significant resources through the party.
Wemaytherefore expect thatdictatorships whose support baseislimited totraditional elites
– landed aristocracy or the owners of capital – will not be willing to give up the resources
necessary for the party to effectively perform its cooptation and control functions. These
regimes will find cooptation and control via parties less advantageous than the alternatives
of repression and cooptation via direct transfers. The analysis in this chapter thus helps
us understand why dictatorships in particular structural conditions do not establish regime-
sanctioned parties or maintain parties without the organizational features examined here,
which in turn remain politically inconsequential.
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