Dimitrov, Martin. " Popular Autocrats". Journal of Democracy, Vol.20, No.1 (2009): 78-81.

Dimitrov, Martin. " Popular Autocrats". Journal of Democracy, Vol.20, No.1 (2009): 78-81.

• This work builds on previous work by Dr. Lucan Way in a recent article, which attempts to establish a list of predictive features which determined whether a country was likely to experience a 'colored revolution'. Dr. Way had proposed that connections with the West and the organizational power of the regime were the two largest factors, to which Dr. Dimitrov would propose adding the popularity of the incumbent (78).
• The author says that the popularity of the incumbent autocrat is majorly important, because popular leaders rarely have to use force to maintain their rule. Dr. Dimitrov proposes that three strategies are commonly used to maintain legitimacy and popularity: economic populism, anti-Western rhetoric, and control over the media (78).
• The use of economic populism is especially important in the former Soviet Union, where standards of living have declined enormously since the end of Communism. Continuing redistribution policies and create extra disposable income for the population fosters high levels of popularity in the population (79).
• Policies of income redistribution and social support are easiest to maintain in countries, like Russia and Azerbaijan, which have a surplus of natural resource wealth to use for this purpose. However, states like Belarus have shown that a continuation of Soviet-era economic policies also results in better standards of living and the genuine popularity of the regime (79).
• Anti-western ideologies have also been successful in maintaining regime stability by casting those opposing authoritarian rule as being foreign and westernized. This is increasing occurring in Russia, but the last days of Yugoslavia also show the strength that ideology can bring to a regime (79).
• A free media is dangerous because it can expose crimes of the leader or high-ranking elites, harming the regime's popularity (79). Journals opposed to the regime can either be killed, or the outlets of media can be controlled by the state. The second option is less likely to result in the regime being ostracized (80).
• The domination of media is powerful because it creates several client organization which disseminate information favorable to the regime, while simultaneously denying opposition a platform to voice their concerns. The author believes that the presence of independent media in Georgia and Ukraine factored greatly into the success of color revolutions in those countries (80).
• The author believes that the popular autocrat must be treated different than other forms of authoritarian regime, because the specific policies and a minor cult of personality will cause the public to overwhelmingly favor the autocracy. Dr. Dimitrov suggests that Vladimir Putin exemplifies this personality, having succeeded in vastly increasing Russian quality of life, developed a unique form of anti-Western rhetoric, and dominated Russian media (80-81).
• Popular autocrats will also respond to challenges differently than unpopular regimes. The tactics for maintaining control suggested in Dr. Way's paper seem to only be used by unpopular regimes, where popular regimes do not have to rely on force or the control of party systems to maintain their political power (81).