When financial crisis strike non-democratic societies

Roughly two-thirds of world countries are non-democracies, a few of which lead world decisions through their participation in the G20. However, when it comes to studying the impact of financial crises, current research mainly focuses on democratic countries, leaving a knowledge gap in a world where advanced and emerging countries are financially connected through globalization, investments or even migratory flows. Deeply concerned by financial fragilities in many non-democracies, Prof. Chwieroth will lead an innovative project, as he compares how different types of non democratic regimes react and respond when affected by financial crises.
He will particularly focus on whether particular types of non-democratic regimes are more prone to financial vulnerability and whether such vulnerability tends to reinforce existing authoritarian regimes or speed up transitions toward democracies. Non democracies have common characteristics, such as the lack of free and fair elections or constraints on the ability of the executive to exercise political authority. However, they also have specific features which, according to Prof. Chwieroth’s, would make these types of regimes different in their fragility to financial crises. In order to understand which countries are most at risk and how they would respond to a financial crisis, he will look at the four types of existing authoritarian regimes as exemplified by Russia (personalized regime run by an individual), Kuwait (monarchy run by royal family regime, China (party based regime run by a single party) and Chile (formerly a military regime).
Political leaders may have very different responses to financial crises depending on the need, or inversely, the lack of need for consultation with a wide group of actors, consultation potentially being an obstacle to quick and efficient responses.
Finally, Prof. Chwieroth will provide an historical vision of country cases starting from the late XIX century to the present. He will provide insights on financial crises, their frequency and severity, and how related long terms processes in non-democratic countries take place. Prof. Chwieroth’s findings may help policy makers adjust to future transnational crises.

Scientific title : AXA Award in Systemic Risk in Non-democratic Societies: What Determines the Political Consequences over the Long Run