Svolik-Methods

Milan W. Svolik has used quantitative method to test his hypotheses while meticulously arranging his data into different levels of analysis. Svolik argues in his book that he could not use past typologies related to authoritarian regimes because the types try to present a diverse set of authoritarian regimes and their diverse institutions into generalized categories. He argues that  dictatorship is defined as a residual category of democratic set up meaning what democracy is not, becomes part of dictatorship in the literature on authoritarian regimes.

To overcome this drawback in literature, Slovik has introduced three levels of analysis on which he has arranged his data to test his claims on authoritarian regimes. First level is defined as Country level where countries are categorized into dictatorships and democracies. He has used four dimensions in first level which include military involvement into politics, restriction on political parties, legislative selection and executive selection. Military involvement is further divided into indirect and direct involvement and direct role is sub-divided into personal role and corporate role. Corporate role is defined as when military is visibly part of the government set up whereas personal role is when it tries to safeguard its interests while staying in the background. Restriction on Political parties is sub-divided into three categories, none, single party system and multi-party system. Legislative Selection and Executive selection are defined on a scale of total absence of these institutions to totally autonomy of these institutions. Slovik uses this arrangement of data to define dictatorships at different levels of despotic regimes.

Second level of analysis is categorized as a Leader level. At this level, Slovik’s data is arranged with respect to dictators and how they come into power and how they exit power. Slovik sub-divided this level into constitutional and non-constitutional level based on the set up authoritarian regimes have in their respective countries. Slovik has also used this level to test if military played any role in the arrival or departure of a leaders and whether violence was part of it. This level helps him test his claims on role of institutions in dictatorships and factors that define longevity of a dictatorial rule.

Third level of analysis is defined as Ruling Coalition Level which defines how much longer authoritarian spells are in a country and what are those factors that determine these authoritarian spells. When one despot succeeds his predecessor, Svolikk looks at the data to define the relationship between the two which includes member of the government, member of the ruling family or  a government party, or part of a military Junta. Svolik has used a complex methodology but it helps him explain his theoretical framework and enable him to test his empirical claims in this book.

Svolik has used game theory models in his analysis while he has repeatedly referred to historical events as examples to substantiate his concepts and claims.