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Replication Data for: Demolition and Discontent: Governing the Authoritarian City

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication Data for: Demolition and Discontent: Governing the Authoritarian City
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/2THQJN
 
Creator Norton, Sean T.
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description The presence of large cities increases the probability of authoritarian breakdown, but the literature has offered little empirical insight as to how challenges to authoritarian rule develop in urban space. I develop a theory of cities as complex socio-political spaces that are difficult to govern, particularly in the absence of democratic institutions. This complexity makes both cooptation and coercion difficult, meaning the very tactics that authoritarian cities use to control discontent can become its proximate cause. Using a large, city-financed housing project in Moscow targeted at rewarding regime supporters, I utilize a Bayesian semi-parametric model to demonstrate that even a seemingly well-targeted cooptive exchange contributed to a surprising defeat for the regime in a subsequent municipal election. My results suggest that the relative illegibility of cities plays an important part in the development of opposition to authoritarian rule.
 
Subject Social Sciences
Authoritarianism
Urban politics
Bayesian analysis
Electoral authoritarianism
 
Contributor Norton, Sean T.
 
Source Federal Service for State Statistics. Census of the Russian Federation, 2010. https://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/perepis2010/croc/perepis_itogi1612.htm



Russian Central Election Commission. Moscow City Elections, 2014. http://www.moscow_city.vybory.izbirkom.ru/region/moscow_city