Download full text
(1.247Mb)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-56784-1
Exports for your reference manager
How authoritarian rulers seek to legitimize repression: framing mass killings in Egypt and Uzbekistan
[journal article]
Abstract How do authoritarian rulers legitimate repressive actions against their own citizens? Although most research depicts repression and legitimation as opposed strategies of political rule, justified coercion against some groups may generate legitimacy in the eyes of other parts of the population. Build... view more
How do authoritarian rulers legitimate repressive actions against their own citizens? Although most research depicts repression and legitimation as opposed strategies of political rule, justified coercion against some groups may generate legitimacy in the eyes of other parts of the population. Building upon this suggested link between legitimation and repression, this article studies the justifications of mass killings. To this end, framing theory is combined with recent research on the domestic and international dimensions of authoritarian rule. We contend that frames are directed towards specific audiences at home and abroad. Moreover, given the common threats at the global level and the diffusion of repressive tactics, we assume that learning processes influence discursive justifications of repression in authoritarian regimes. We provide an analysis of government rhetoric by comparing the protest crackdowns of Rabi'a 'Adawiya Square in Egypt and Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan, taking into account the audiences and the sources of the frames that justify repression. In both cases, we find the terrorism frame to emerge as dominant.... view less
Keywords
authoritarianism; repression; protest; framing approach; legitimation; politics; case study; Egypt; Uzbekistan; terrorism
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
Beziehungen zwischen Staat und Gesellschaft
Document language
English
Publication Year
2018
Page/Pages
p. 882-900
Journal
Democratization, 25 (2018) 5
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2018.1439021
ISSN
1743-890X
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed