A rich investigation into Morocco’s urban politics Over the past thirty years, Morocco’s cities have transformed dramatically. To take just one example, Casablanca’s medina is now obscured behind skyscrapers that are funded by global capital and encouraged by Morocco’s monarchy, which hopes to transform this city into a regional leader of finance and commerce. Such changes have occurred throughout Morocco. Megaprojects are redesigning the cityscapes of Rabat, Tangiers, and Casablanca, turning the nation’s urban centers into laboratories of capital accumulation, political dominance, and social control. In Globalized Authoritarianism, Koenraad Bogaert links more abstract questions of government, globalization, and neoliberalism with concrete changes in the city. Bogaert goes deep beneath the surface of Morocco’s urban prosperity to reveal how neoliberal government and the increased connectivity engendered by global capitalism transformed Morocco’s leading urban spaces, opening up new sites for capital accumulation, creating enormous class divisions, and enabling new innovations in state authoritarianism. Analyzing these transformations, he argues that economic globalization does not necessarily lead to increased democratization but to authoritarianism with a different face, to a form of authoritarian government that becomes more and more a globalized affair. Showing how Morocco’s experiences have helped produce new forms of globalization, Bogaert offers a bridge between in-depth issues of Middle Eastern studies and broader questions of power, class, and capital as they continue to evolve in the twenty-first century.

With democracy in decline, authoritarian governments are staging a comeback around the world. Over the past decade, illiberal powers have become emboldened and gained influence within the global arena. Leading authoritarian countries—including China, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela—have developed new tools and strategies to contain the spread of democracy and challenge the liberal international political order. Meanwhile, the advanced democracies have retreated, failing to respond to the threat posed by the authoritarians. As undemocratic regimes become more assertive, they are working together to repress civil society while tightening their grip on cyberspace and expanding their reach in international media. These political changes have fostered the emergence of new counternorms—such as the authoritarian subversion of credible election monitoring—that threaten to further erode the global standing of liberal democracy. In Authoritarianism Goes Global, a distinguished group of contributors present fresh insights on the complicated issues surrounding the authoritarian resurgence and the implications of these systemic shifts for the international order. This collection of essays is critical for advancing our understanding of the emerging challenges to democratic development. Contributors: Anne Applebaum, Anne-Marie Brady, Alexander Cooley, Javier Corrales, Ron Deibert, Larry Diamond, Patrick Merloe, Abbas Milani, Andrew Nathan, Marc F. Plattner, Peter Pomerantsev, Douglas Rutzen, Lilia Shevtsova, Alex Vatanka, Christopher Walker, and Frederic Wehrey

Neoliberal globalization is in deep crisis. This crisis is manifested on a global scale and embodies a number of fundamental contradictions, a central one of which is the global rise of authoritarianism and fascism. This emergent form of authoritarianism is a right-wing reaction to the problems generated by globalization supported and funded by some of the largest and most powerful corporations in their assault against social movements on the left to prevent the emergence of socialism against global capitalism. As the crisis of neoliberal global capitalism unfolds, and as we move to the brink of another economic crisis and the threat of war, global capitalism is once again resorting to authoritarianism and fascism to maintain its power. This book addresses this vital question in comparative-historical perspective and provides a series of case studies around the world that serve as a warning against the impending rise of fascism in the 21st century.

We are witnessing a worldwide resurgence of reactionary ideologies and movements, combined with an escalating assault on democratic institutions and structures. Nevertheless, most studies of these phenomena remain anchored in a methodological nationalism, while comparative research is almost entirely limited to the Global North. Yet, authoritarian transformations in the South — and the struggles against them — have not only been just as dramatic as those in the North but also preceded them, and consequently have been studied by Southern scholars for many years. This volume brings together the work of more than 15 scholar-activists from across the Global South, combining in-depth studies of regional processes of authoritarian transformation with a global perspective on authoritarian capitalism. With a foreword by Verónica Gago.

Authoritarian capitalism is rapidly evolving, intensifying and spreading across the globe. This updated second edition book demonstrates that the recent resurgence of fascism and repressive democracies are connected to and symptomatic of the fundamental authoritarianism of capitalism.

Originally published in 2005. Domestic and foreign economic and political policies in the rich capitalist nations in the North and in the poor countries in the South are geared towards globalization and democratization. Indeed the dominant view held by countries in the North is that globalization leads to democracy and vice versa, and that in turn economic development will result from that process. Thus many scarce resources are allocated to bring about globalization and democracy. Exploring the dynamics of change that allow for the persistence of authoritarian states in the Third World, this illuminating book highlights certain aspects of democratization that have not been investigated fully. Anyone interested in development politics and political sociology will draw a plethora of important theoretical insights into globalization, authoritarianism and transition/democratization from this original study.

This book challenges the assumption that authoritarianism is necessarily a phenomenon located at the level of the state, and that states as a whole are therefore either democratic or authoritarian. Its central aim is to shed light on manifestations of authoritarianism that are not confined to the 'territorial trap' of the modern state, and are not captured by the concept of an authoritarian regime. Redefining authoritarianism from a practice perspective allows us to understand how authoritarian practices unfold and evolve within democracies and in transnational settings, in what circumstances they thrive, and how they are best countered. Authoritarian Practices in a Global Age provides a parsimonious framework for recognizing and analysing contemporary manifestations of authoritarianism beyond the state, alongside a number of empirical case studies. The empirical chapters cast a wide net. They comprise a study of transnational repression by authoritarian states; two chapters on informal and formal multilateral collaboration in anti-terrorist policies; a chapter on corporate and public-private authoritarian practices in the mining sector; and a chapter on cover-ups of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The concluding chapter draws out commonalities and unique features from the case studies, thereby setting out a research agenda for future work. Authoritarian practices, once operationalized as demonstrated in this book, can and must be classified and compared, and causal connections established with other phenomena such as violence, corruption, and inequality, if we are to suggest ways of responding to them.