Authors

Maria Snegovaya²; Kirill Petrov¹;  ¹ KIMEP University, Kazakhstan;  ² Georgetown University, United States

Discussion

When explaining the recent wave of re-autocratization, scholars often ignore the role of elite composition. We bring the focus back by compiling a unique dataset of Eurasian elites, the region with sufficient variation in patterns of re-autocratization. Using the literature on re-autocratization, we hypothesize that the continuity in power of larger shares of old autocratic regime elites contributes to higher levels of elite cohesion, facilitates elite cooptation and reproduction of highly centralized domination without bottom-up rotation. Our dataset includes detailed biographical information about post-Soviet elites in all fifteen states for the years 1994, 2002, and 2010. We operationalize political elites using a positional approach, and track elites' professional (including nomenklatura, military and security service) backgrounds in a given country-year to explore the relationship between the continuity of Soviet-era elites in power and re-autocratization indicators in a given polity. Our DVs are indexes of democracy from V-Dem, Polity and Freedom House datasets. We control for lagged levels of democracy in a given country-year, starting levels of democracy, GDP size, growth, population, and other factors. The results demonstrate that the old autocratic regime's elite continuity in power is significantly associated with reproduction of patronal politics and lower democracy levels in a given polity.