Explain authoritarianism and its key features. What are different forms of authoritarian regimes?

Question

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Answer 1

Dan's right. I'd just add that "control" is the key term there, and it's important to remember that all governments control by many means. Most obviously, by physical force or the threat of it (break the law and you'll go to jail; say the wrong thing and the secret police come for you in the night). But there are many other, subtler ways to exert control. The political scientist Steven Lukes famously distinguishes between (using my own terms here) #1 overt power - which is getting what you want regarding a particular "agenda item"; #2 covert power - which is controlling what gets on the agenda; and #3 ideology - which is getting what you want by persuading an oppressed group to believe X is in their interests and should be supported when objectively it's not in their interests.

Once again, all governments tend to use all three - it's just that the more authoritarian the government is, the more ordinary peoples' freedom of action is constrained.

You could argue Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" was the ultimate example ... until modern China turned into the ultimate surveillance-and-punishment state.

Answer 2

The primary feature of Authoritarianism is just that: authority. The government is in charge and in control of everything: the press, the media, the economy, travel, religion, science, the arts, the job sector, etc. And not only are they in charge, they do not tolerate competition for the control of these sectors. They will use violence, intimidation, imprisonment, exile, blackmail, starvation, and many other oppressive tactics to quell rebellion and keep all sectors of society under their control.

As far as the different forms, think of political ideology on top of a grid like you're charting a line in Math. There's a Y-axis that goes up and down and an X axis that goes left to right. The X-axis goes from radically progressive on on the left side to radically conservative on the right. That's how we tend to view political ideology in America. But there's actually another dimension to it, which is the Y-axis. All the way at the bottom is Anarchism, a system in which the government does not exist. All the way at the top is Authoritarianism, where the government is in control of everything. But since there is still the presence of the X-axis, which means that Authoritarianism can exist under countries with a far-left agenda (Communist Cuba) or a far-right agenda (Nazi Germany) or anywhere in between. It's not a matter of specific policy as much as a matter of government control.