Political Patronage and Autocratisation

Autocratisation is one of the most significant political trends today. This is evident in the decline of democratic qualities in established democracies and the rise of hybrid regimes and closed autocracies. What mechanisms drive the advancement of autocratic projects?

In this year's Stein Rokkan Lecture, Petr Kopecký explores the role of political patronage – the power of politicians to appoint loyalists and dismiss politically unfriendly ones. Drawing on insights from democratic settings, Petr examines how patronage operates beyond the limits of democratic governance. He argues that patronage a key strategy through which autocratising leaders initiate and entrench democratic regression.

Free and open to all

The renowned Stein Rokkan Lecture, an annual highlight of the Joint Sessions of Workshops, will be freely accessible to the wider ECPR community as part of our House Series.

Petr Kopecký is Professor of Political Science and co-editor of East European Politics. He studied Economics at the University of Economics in Prague and Political Science at the University of Manchester. He holds a PhD from Leiden University. He was lecturer and senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield, and Visiting Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg, and the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development in Accra.

His main research interest are political parties and party systems in contemporary democracies. His current work focuses on the relationship between political patronage and the processes of party building and party organisational transformation, and on the politicisation of recruitment of appointed elites. His other research interests include comparative (East) European politics, democratisation, comparative political institutions, legislative behavior, and civil society.