In the midst of the political upheavals that engulfed Myanmar from 2010 to 2011, international attention was fixed upon the military regime and its dissident opponents. But away from the cameras, a very different set of struggles were unfolding across the country. These struggles were manifested not as violent clashes, but as everyday interactions involving taxi drivers, community organizers, farmers, heads of domestic NGOs, and many more. A product of five years' research, during which the author conducted over five hundred ethnographic interviews across the country, Pathways that Changed Myanmar provides a voice for those ordinary Burmese whose trials and aspirations went unheard and unnoticed during this pivotal moment in the nation's history.

The twenty-four essays accompany, illustrate and underpin the conceptual framework elaborated in Post-Communist Mafia State, published in conjunction with this volume. Leading specialists analyze the manifestations of the current political regime in Hungary from twenty-four angles. Topics discussed include the ideology, constitutional issues, social policy, the judiciary, foreign relations, nationalism, media, memory politics, corruption, civil society, education, culture and so on. Beyond the basic features of the economy the domains of taxation, banking system, energy policies and the agriculture are treated in dedicated studies. The essays are based on detailed empirical investigation about conditions in today's Hungary. They nevertheless contribute to the exploration of the characteristic features of post-communist authoritarian regimes, shared by an increasing number of countries in Europe and Central Asia.

Getting growth going has been rare in the developing world-since 1960 only nine developing countries have succeeded in sustaining high growth. The aim of Dictators, Democrats and Development in Southeast Asia is to examine how dictators and democrats in three of the nine fast growers -Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, hereafter IMT-built and sustained pro-growth political coalitions that enabled them to adopt policies that ushered in sustained high growth. The focus is on IMT because circa 1960 few thought the three were candidates for high growth and because the three have factor endowments, ethnic heterogeneity, and forms of governance that resemble the Rest. These similarities suggest the Rest may have much to learn from IMT. The focus is unabashedly on the politics of development in IMT because dictators and democrats in IMT built and sustained pro-growth political coalitions that enabled them to link their long term political survival with delivering development. How and why they did so should be of keen interest to the Rest. Because dictators and democrats in IMT were committed to capitalist, industrial and open economy development strategies but deeply suspicious of a laissez faire approach to development, none of the three ever adopted a Washington Consensus style growth strategy. While all three toyed with a Northeast style capitalist developmental state approach to growth, because governments in IMT lacked the political requisites to make this strategy work, none really stuck to this approach to growth either. Instead dictators and democrats in IMT implemented highly pragmatic growth and development strategies. When markets worked, governments used them. When interventions worked governments relied on them. When either failed to deliver expected results, governments weeded out bad investments to sustain high growth. Such a pragmatic, trial and error approach to development should also be of keen interest to the Rest.

Stalinism, that particularly brutal phase of the Communist experience, came to an end in most of Europe with the death of Stalin in 1953. However, in one country - Albania - Stalinism survived virtually unscathed until 1990. The regime that the Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha led from 1944 until his death in 1985 was incomparably severe. Such was the reign of terror that no audible voice of opposition or dissent ever arose in the Balkan state and Albania became isolated from the rest of the world and utterly inward-looking. Three decades after his death, the spectre of Hoxha still lingers over the country, yet many people - inside and outside Albania - know little about the man who ruled the country with an iron fist for so many decades. This book provides the first biography of Hoxha available in English. Using unseen documents and first-hand interviews, journalist Blendi Fevziu pieces together the life of a tyrannical ruler in a biography which will be essential reading for anyone interested in Balkan history and communist studies.

Between 1976 and 1983, during a period of brutal military dictatorship, armed forces in Argentina abducted 30,000 citizens. These victims were tortured and killed, never to be seen again. Although the history of "los desaparecidos," "the disappeared," has become widely known, the stories of the Argentines who miraculously survived their imprisonment and torture are not well understood. "The Reappeared" is the first in-depth study of an officially sanctioned group of Argentine former political prisoners, the Association of Former Political Prisoners of Cordoba, which organized in 2007. Using ethnographic methods, anthropologist Rebekah Park explains the experiences of these survivors of state terrorism and in the process raises challenging questions about how societies define victimhood, what should count as a human rights abuse, and what purpose memorial museums actually serve. The men and women who reappeared were often ostracized by those who thought they must have been collaborators to have survived imprisonment, but their actual stories are much more complex. Park explains why the political prisoners waited nearly three decades before forming their own organization and offers rare insights into what motivates them to recall their memories of solidarity and resistance during the dictatorial past, even as they suffer from the long-term effects of torture and imprisonment. "The Reappeared" challenges readers to rethink the judicial and legislative aftermath of genocide and forces them to consider how much reparation is actually needed to compensate for unimaginable--and lifelong--suffering.

Between 1976 and 1983, during a period of brutal military dictatorship, armed forces in Argentina abducted 30,000 citizens. These victims were tortured and killed, never to be seen again. Although the history of "los desaparecidos," "the disappeared," has become widely known, the stories of the Argentines who miraculously survived their imprisonment and torture are not well understood. "The Reappeared" is the first in-depth study of an officially sanctioned group of Argentine former political prisoners, the Association of Former Political Prisoners of Cordoba, which organized in 2007. Using ethnographic methods, anthropologist Rebekah Park explains the experiences of these survivors of state terrorism and in the process raises challenging questions about how societies define victimhood, what should count as a human rights abuse, and what purpose memorial museums actually serve. The men and women who reappeared were often ostracized by those who thought they must have been collaborators to have survived imprisonment, but their actual stories are much more complex. Park explains why the political prisoners waited nearly three decades before forming their own organization and offers rare insights into what motivates them to recall their memories of solidarity and resistance during the dictatorial past, even as they suffer from the long-term effects of torture and imprisonment. "The Reappeared" challenges readers to rethink the judicial and legislative aftermath of genocide and forces them to consider how much reparation is actually needed to compensate for unimaginable--and lifelong--suffering.

This book broaches a comparative and interdisciplinary approach in its exploration of the phenomenon of the dictatorship in the Hispanic World in the twentieth century. Some of the themes explored through a transatlantic perspective include testimonial accounts of violence and resistance in prisons; hunger and repression; exile, silence and intertextuality; bildungsroman and the modification of gender roles; and the role of trauma and memory within the genres of the novel, autobiography, testimonial literature, the essay, documentaries, puppet theater, poetry, and visual art. By looking at the similarities and differences of dictatorships represented in the diverse landscapes of Latin America and Spain, the authors hope to provide a more panoramic view of the dictatorship that moves beyond historiographical accounts of oppression and engages actively in a more broad dialectics of resistance and a politics of memory.

Nothing in Soviet-style communism was as shrouded in mystery as its secret police. Its paid employees were known to few and their actual numbers remain uncertain. Its informers and collaborators operated clandestinely under pseudonyms and met their officers in secret locations. Its files were inaccessible, even to most party members. The people the secret police recruited or interrogated were threatened so effectively that some never told even their spouses, and many have held their tongues to this day, long after the regimes fell. With the end of communism, many of the newly established governments - among them Romania's - opened their secret police archives. From those files, especially her own voluminous one, as well as her personal memories and interviews with acquaintances that turned out be informers, the author has carried out historical ethnography of the Romanian Securitate. Secrets and Truths is not only of historical interest but has implications for understanding the rapidly developing "security state" of the neoliberal present.

The Nazi regime was propelled to power by the new phenomenon of a cohesive mass media communication programme which encompassed press, posters, radio, art and film. The rise and fall of the Third Reich spanned a period of just 25 years and its powerful message was shaped and projected from a vision of German heroism, initially conceived and directed by Adolf Hitler and continued by Dr Josef Goebbels. This authoritative study of the propaganda generated by the Nazi party by Emmy award winning author Bob Carruthers encompasses an in-depth analysis of the surviving films, posters and magazines of the Third Reich.

"Dictators and Dictatorships" is a qualitative enquiry into the politics of authoritarian regimes. It argues that political outcomes in dictatorships are largely a product of leader-elite relations. Differences in the internal structure of dictatorships affect the dynamics of this relationship. This book shows how dictatorships differ from one another and the implications of these differences for political outcomes. In particular, it examines political processes in personalist, military, single-party, monarchic, and hybrid regimes.The aim of the book is to provide a clear definition of what dictatorship means, how authoritarian politics works, and what the political consequences of dictatorship are. It discusses how authoritarianism influences a range of political outcomes, such as economic performance, international conflict, and leader and regime durability.Numerous case studies from around the world support the theory and research presented to foster a better understanding of the inner workings of authoritarian regimes. By combining theory with concrete political situations, the book will appeal to undergraduate students in comparative politics, international relations, authoritarian politics, and democratization.

They usually start out as ordinary people, doing their best to deal with mixed messages in a complex world. What they donOt realize is that they may be the target of a violent system that is building an obedient workforce. One day theyOre enjoying a few laughs with buddies, and seemingly the next day, they wake up as human killing machines. And they allowed it to happen. Addressing one of the most serious threats to the world today, Human Killing Machines applies the model of systematic indoctrination to case studies of brutality in Iran, Nazi Germany, Al Qaeda, and Abu Ghraib. The book reveals how these transformations take place_how systems redefine morality to turn ordinary people into torturers, terrorists, and genocidal killers. Analyzing the key differences between these cases also helps to identify the safeguards which limit violence. Lankford demonstrates the weaknesses of indoctrination, the ways heroic individuals have resisted its influence, and the potential for countermeasures. Based on these examples, he offers recommendations for how we can begin to reform the U.S. military and increase its accountability, reduce Al Qaeda terroristsO commitment to their missions, and spark an awakening in Iran so that the oppressive regime goes out with a whimper_not with a bang.

They usually start out as ordinary people, doing their best to deal with mixed messages in a complex world. What they don t realize is that they may be the target of a violent system that is building an obedient workforce. One day they re enjoying a few laughs with buddies, and seemingly the next day, they wake up as human killing machines. And they allowed it to happen. Addressing one of the most serious threats to the world today, Human Killing Machines applies the model of systematic indoctrination to case studies of brutality in Iran, Nazi Germany, Al Qaeda, and Abu Ghraib. The book reveals how these transformations take place how systems redefine morality to turn ordinary people into torturers, terrorists, and genocidal killers. Analyzing the key differences between these cases also helps to identify the safeguards which limit violence. Lankford demonstrates the weaknesses of indoctrination, the ways heroic individuals have resisted its influence, and the potential for countermeasures. Based on these examples, he offers recommendations for how we can begin to reform the U.S. military and increase its accountability, reduce Al Qaeda terrorists commitment to their missions, and spark an awakening in Iran so that the oppressive regime goes out with a whimper not with a bang."

In 1915, when Chesterton emerged from a coma after his physical collapse several months earlier, England was in the midst of the Great War with Germany. Although the English army had no use for Chesterton as a soldier, his pen was immediately enlisted to help the war effort. The Appetite of Tyranny is one of the resulting works. In it, Chesterton explores the conditions under which war is justified, and his conclusions are as relevant now as they were then. This thoughtful, provocative work should be read by everyone who is interested in sorting out the problems of modern politics, aggression, and defense. Includes "The War on the Word," "The Refusal of Reciprocity," "The Appetite of Tyranny," "The Escape of Folly," and "Letters to an Old Garibaldian." Newly designed and typeset by Waking Lion Press.

The relationship between ideas and politics in inter-war Russia has long been controversial, and historians have been sharply divided over the influence of Marxism on Stalinist politics. This study presents a reassessment of Bolshevik ideology, and of the ways in which it interacted with other political forces during the period. By analysing the political discourse of the Bolshevik leadership, it shows how differing interpretations of Marxism-Leninism informed contrasting political and economic strategies. In particular, it traces the emergence of a strategy of mobilization, which was closely associated with leftist trends within Bolshevism. In exploring these ideas and strategies, the study sheds new light on inter-war Bolshevik politics, and in particular on the origins of Stalin s Great Terror of 1936-8.

Motivated by the reentry of tyranny into political discourse and political action, this new collection of essays compares ancient and contemporary accounts of tyranny in an effort to find responses to current political dilemmas and enduring truths. Identified by Plato and Aristotle as the worst kind of regime, the concept of tyranny was called into question during the Enlightenment and finally rejected in the 20th century as questions of good and evil were separated from facts-the proper domain for political science. However, in our globally interconnected world, tyrants are no longer dangerous solely to their subjects and neighbors, but to all. Confronting Tyranny brings together distinguished scholars to explore the lessons of classical political philosophy for the present political crisis of understanding and action.

Motivated by the reentry of tyranny into political discourse and political action, this new collection of essays compares ancient and contemporary accounts of tyranny in an effort to find responses to current political dilemmas and enduring truths. Identified by Plato and Aristotle as the worst kind of regime, the concept of tyranny was called into question during the Enlightenment and finally rejected in the 20th century as questions of good and evil were separated from facts-the proper domain for political science. However, in our globally interconnected world, tyrants are no longer dangerous solely to their subjects and neighbors, but to all. Confronting Tyranny brings together distinguished scholars to explore the lessons of classical political philosophy for the present political crisis of understanding and action.

Authoritarian Legacies and Democracy in Latin America and Southern Europe brings together well-known comparative political scientists to define and explore the effects of authoritarian rule in post-authoritarian regimes in Southern Europe, the Southern Cone, and Brazil. Contributors to this volume use the research of historians, social psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists to formulate their conceptualizations of legacies. Their analysis is also sensitive to the experiences of those who live with the consequences of authoritarian regimes. Each chapter offers a multi-case comparison either from within Latin America or between Latin America and Southern Europe. Among the challenges for democracies in Latin America and Southern Europe are weakened political parties, politicized militaries, compromised judiciaries, corrupt police forces, and widespread citizen distrust. Utilizing a historical-sociological methodology that incorporates both the formal-legal and cultural dimensions of legacies, these essayists offer a fruitful examination of the political structures and institutions bequeathed by authoritarian regimes. They look at such core institutions as political parties, executives, legislatures, constitutions, and interest groups as well as symbolic-discursive dimensions related to individual and collective memories, citizenship, public perception, and trust. They also suggest policy directions to eradicate authoritarian legacies from democratic institutions and praxis. Authoritarian Legacies and Democracy in Latin America and Southern Europe encourages comparativists to consider more systematically the many manifestations of authoritarian legacies as challenges to democracy.This volume will appeal to all students and scholars interested in comparative politics, Latin America, Southern Europe, and democratization.

Concentration camp survivor, former Marxist-Leninist and Lithuanian patriot, Aleksandras Shtromas devoted his life to understanding totalitarianism and political change. He was a remarkably prescient thinker and is probably best known for his prediction of the fall of the Soviet Union, forecast at a time when the mighty empire seemed almost invincible. This posthumous collection of writings, edited by Robert Faulkner and Daniel J. Mahoney, addresses some of the topics that preoccupied Shtromas throughout his life, including totalitarian regimes, postcommunist transitions, the fates of the Baltic states, and the nature of political revolutions. Readers of Totalitarianism and the Prospects for World Order: Closing the Door on the Twentieth Century will encounter not just a learned and impressive scholar, but also a great man who confronted monstrous evils in his lifetime.

Concentration camp survivor, former Marxist-Leninist and Lithuanian patriot, Aleksandras Shtromas devoted his life to understanding totalitarianism and political change. He was a remarkably prescient thinker and is probably best known for his prediction of the fall of the Soviet Union, forecast at a time when the mighty empire seemed almost invincible. This posthumous collection of writings, edited by Robert Faulkner and Daniel J. Mahoney, addresses some of the topics that preoccupied Shtromas throughout his life, including totalitarian regimes, postcommunist transitions, the fates of the Baltic states, and the nature of political revolutions. Readers of Totalitarianism and the Prospects for World Order: Closing the Door on the Twentieth Century will encounter not just a learned and impressive scholar, but also a great man who confronted monstrous evils in his lifetime.

This two-volume book considers from a risk perspective the current phenomenon of the new Alt-Right authoritarianism and whether it represents real democracy or an unacceptable hegemony potentially resulting in elected dictatorships and abuses as well as dysfunctional government. Contributing authors represent an eclectic range of disciplines, including cognitive, organizational and political psychology, sociology, history, political science, international relations, linguistics and discourse analysis, and risk analysis. The Alt-Right threats and risk exposures, whether to democracy, human rights, law and order, social welfare, racial harmony, the economy, national security, the environment, and international relations, are identified and analysed across a number of selected countries. While Vol.1 (ISBN 978-3-8382-1153-4) focusses on the US, Vol. 2 illuminates the phenomenon in the UK, Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Hungary, and Russia. Potential strategies to limit the Alt-Right threat are proposed.

The Pinochet Affair is the epic story of the events that surrounded the dramatic arrest of General Augusto Pinochet in London in October 1998. Beginning his narrative with the violent military coup that Pinochet led on September 11, 1973, Roger Burbach discusses what led the dictator to murder thousands of his own people and to authorize acts of international terrorism in Argentina, Italy and Washington D.C. He describes the global clash that ultimately took place in Spain, Britain and Chile to bring him to justice, and the impact the Pinochet affair has had around the world as the global human rights community seeks to establish an international regime of justice.

This work tells the epic story of the arrest of General Augusto Pinochet in London in October 1998, and the events surrounding it. It begins with Pinochet's violent military coup against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973. It probes the sociopathic, paranoid and authoritarian tendencies that led him to murder thousands of people in Chile while authorizing acts of international terrorism in Argentina, Italy and Washington D.C. In response to his brutal reign, a human rights movement was forged that played a critical role in finally ousting the dictator in 1990. But even out of office, his power was such that he suppressed all efforts to prosecute him, until his detention in London. The book describes the clash between the politicians who sought to cover up and wash their hands of Pinochet, and the judges, lawyers and human rights organizations. And it discusses the implications of the affair for an international regime of justice.

"Secret Dialogues" uncovers an unexpected development in modern Latin American history: the existence of secret talks between generals and Roman Catholic bishops at the height of Brazil's military dictatorship. During the brutal term of Emilio Garrastazu Medici, the Catholic Church became famous for its progressivism. However, new archival sources demonstrate that the church also sought to retain its privileges and influence by exploring a potential alliance with the military. From 1970 to 1974 the secret Bipartite Commission worked to resolve church-state conflict and to define the boundary between social activism and subversion. As the bishops increasingly made defense of human rights their top pastoral and political goal, the Bipartite became an important forum of protest against torture and social injustice. Based on more than 60 interviews and primary sources from three continents, "Secret Dialogues" is a major addition to the historical narrative of the most violent yet, ironically, the least studied period of the Brazilian military regime. Its story is intertwined with the central themes of the era: revolutionary warfare, repression, censorship, the fight for democracy, and the conflict between Catholic notions of social justice and the anticommunist Doctrine of National Security.

"Secret Dialogues" is the first book of its kind on the contemporary Catholic Church in any Latin American country, for most work in this field is devoid of primary documentary research. Serbin questions key assumptions about church-state conflict such as the typical conservative-progressive dichotomy and the notion of church-state rupture during harsh authoritarian periods. "Secret Dialogues" is written for undergraduate and graduate students, professional scholars, and the general reader interested in Brazil, Latin America, military dictatorship, human rights, and the relationship between religion and politics.

Guo challenges the predominant view that post-Mao China has moved away from communist totalitarianism and that totalitarianism is an outdated paradigm for China studies. He seeks to reconstruct a plausible macro-model in conceptual and comparative terms for defining regime identity and assessing the nature of regime change. Professor Guo then applies the model to the study of regime change in post-Mao China and reevaluates post-Mao changes across the five major empirical aspects of regime change (political, ideological, economic, legal, and social) and the most critical dimensions of each.

The findings of Guo's study demonstrate that the practice of post-Mao reforms remains rooted in and committed to the hard core of Chinese communist totalitarianism and that the regime has attempted to revive many typical totalitarian practices. Most essential or core elements of the idea, practice, and institution of totalitarianism remain essentially unchanged in all major aspects of the post-Mao regime, though the post-Mao regime does suffer from a certain degree of regime weakening in its adjustments of the action means or protective belt of defending the hard core of the communist totalitarian regime. A controversial and essential analysis for scholars, researchers, and policy makers involved with contemporary China.

This volume examines the causes, consequences, and dynamics of that style of governance by force that has come to be known as state terror. The collection deals with theoretical issues and examines case applications as well. The editors distinguish among the study of oppression, repression, and state terror systems. State terrorism in the form of enforcement terrorism, economic repression, military control, and the "legal" oppression of apartheid in Latin America, Argentina, the Philippines, and South Africa is discussed. One chapter explores American containment policy. Theoretical chapters on state terrorism include editor George Lopez's scheme for the analysis of government terror, editor Michael Stohl's discussion of the international dimensions of this problem, and an agenda for continued investigation.