Bøger af Uwe Backes

Ideocracies, or ideological dictatorships, such as the "Third Reich", the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China have, much more than any other kinds of autocracy, characterized the history of the 20th century. Despite their undeniable loss of significance, ideocracies have not disappeared from the world in the 21st century. This book explores the functioning of ideocracies and analyses the typical interplay of legitimation, co-optation and repression which autocratic elites use in an attempt to stabilize their rule. In the first part of the book, the contributors discuss the conceptual history of the ideocracy notion. The second part offers case studies pertaining to the Soviet State, Italy, the National Socialist Regime, the German Democratic Republic, the People's Republic of China, North Korea and Cuba. Finally, the third part compares various ideocracies and draws together key themes. Uniting the perspectives of history, philosophy and political science through the use of case studies and systematic comparisons, this book offers a unique examination of ideocracies both past and present which will be of interest to students and scholars researching political regimes, political history and comparative politics, as well as other disciplines.

This textbook provides a systematic, comprehensive and historically embedded introduction to the formation, functioning and development conditions of today's non-democratic regimes. It disseminates the results of international autocracy research, familiarises readers with its concepts and methods, provides information about the most important types of autocracy and illuminates the conditions for their stability. System transformations are also examined from the perspective of autocratic regimes. The book integrates approaches, findings and perspectives from different research traditions and aims to encourage an interdisciplinary view. The author works at the Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies at the University of Dresden.

The Western tradition of a sovereign state, which roots go back to antiquity, inherited a centre vouching for virtuous moderation. This book compares this tradition with what it quintessentially objects to: political extremes.