Iron Fists in Velvet Gloves

Nonviolent Repression in Electoral Autocracies

According to the Varieties of Democracy project, in 2021, 68% of the world's population lived in nondemocracies. The dominant form of nondemocracy are electoral autocracies, regimes that permit opposition parties and uncompetitive elections. To manage dissent, governments in these regimes increasingly rely on strategies of nonviolent repression.

About the project

Our project offers the first systematic study of how strategies of nonviolent repression influence protest coordination between different types of opposition parties and voters in electoral autocracies. We focus on one strategy of nonviolent repression in particular, the use of protest permit authorizations.

News & Updates

DATA ON PROTEST

We are currently collecting and analyzing a set of data related to protests in Russia, and will make them available through Dataverse in 2022.

SURVEY DATA

We are currently collecting and analyzing a set of survey data related to protests in Russia, and will make them available through Dataverse in 2022.