Regime Competition Around the World

Pace, M. (Speaker)

Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Description

The (re-)emergence of powerful authoritarian states like China and Russia, the relative decline of the power of ‘the West’ and the trend of autocratization have created a more pluralistic and multipolar world, in which states with most different political regime types coexist and increasingly view each other with suspicion. This is reflected in a discourse about contemporary great power politics centered on terms like “strategic competition”, “systemic rivalry” or a “new Cold War” and, related, in a narrative that identifies a polarized conflict between democracies and autocracies. In order to critically assess these at times overly simplistic and morally charged debates, we propose a new analytical framework focusing on “regime competition”, which captures two interrelated phenomena: states with different regime types - particularly great powers - compete over international influence in third states and world politics, while also engaging in a contest about their respective performance across issue areas.
In order to develop this framework further, PRIF will organize a workshop series exploring in depth how these two-fold dynamics of regime competition are playing out across different world regions: Southeast Asia, MENA, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. In each of them, regime differences are shaping crucial dynamics: the influence of extraregional great powers (China, the US and Russia) and regional powers; the role of regional organizations featuring multiple regime types; and domestic political (re-)actions by and in local states. For each of these regions, we will focus both on the international level - whether and how regime differences shape the policies of and relations between states - as well as domestic political dynamics that concern the internal legitimization or contestation of regimes. While each workshop will have a regional focus, the overall aim is to compare regime competition politics between and across regions. We invite contributions across different levels of analysis, covering perceptions of power relations and performance contests between different regimes:

Period	25 Sept 2024
Event type	Workshop
Location	Frankfurt, GermanyShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International

Keywords

regime competition
EU
China
Russia
MENA
Saudi Arabia
Egypt

Documents & Links

More than thirty years after the proclaimed “end of history” and the third wave of democratization, the world is once again marked by increased diversity in political regimes. The (re-)emergence of powerful authoritarian states like China and Russia and the trend of backsliding in seemingly consolidated democracies have created a more pluralistic and multipolar world, in which states with different political regime types increasingly view each other as competitors, seeking to prove the superiority of their own political and economic systems and to win the allegiance of third countries. This has particularly stark consequences for dynamics of peace and conflict at several levels: internationally, events like the Russian invasion of Ukraine are interpreted as evidence of an intractable, polarized and even violent conflict between democracies and autocracies. Regionally, an uneasy coexistence of democratic and authoritarian states is complicating efforts at closer integration in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. And domestically, increasing polarization between democratic and authoritarian visions of governance is affecting countries across the globe, challenging existing regimes of both kinds. Despite the prominence of regime competition, many of the current political debates surrounding this phenomenon tend to rely on three questionable assumptions: first, that there is a clear dividing line between democratic and authoritarian camps; second, that their behavior is directly related to their regime characteristics; and third, that the resulting relationship between them is invariably antagonistic. PRIF’s research group on regime competition aims to develop a more nuanced understanding of these dynamics, by leveraging existing country and disciplinary expertise from across the institute. In particular, the group pursues two objectives: (1) to scrutinize the core assumptions behind the notion of a regime competition between democracies and autocracies by pooling and reviewing existing knowledge on the international behavior and performance of different political regimes; and (2) to contribute empirical studies on the politics of regime competition by analyzing the ways in which varieties of (perceived) regime competition impact on global order, foreign policy and the domestic politics of third states. Our empirical findings on these issues are not just of academic value, but identify and provide policy recommendations as to how German and EU foreign and development policies can and should (not) deal with regime diversity.

Regime Competition Around the World

Description

Keywords

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Projects

SHAPEDEM-EU Horizon Europe: EU Democracy Support in its Eastern and Southern Neighbourhoods