Ten Factors that Strengthen Authoritarian Governance: Case of Azerbaijan

Published in 2022.

Although this article is based on the example of authoritarian governance in Azerbaijan, it covers issues of authoritarian governance in general, especially for countries where rentier incomes from the production, export, or transportation of oil and natural gas and other mineral resources account for a significant share of the state budget.

Authoritarian governance is characteristic of rentier states. The vast majority of such states are very similar in their lobbying policies for systematization and expansion of corruption, election fraud and loss of confidence in the electoral system, high state participation in the economy and budget formation, maintaining high employment and low wages in the public sector, persistent suppression of freedoms and initiatives, dismantling of the free press and independent civil society, failure to ensure the independence of the judiciary, increased brain drain, and obtaining foreign support.

Cases from post-soviet rich natural resources countries show that such states exchange information and experience to strengthen authoritarianism in their countries and pass on to each other the political technologies they use against democratic institutions.