Editing Autocracy (section)

== Study and evaluation ==
[[File:Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index 2024.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|The 2024 [[Economist Democracy Index]]: authoritarian regimes are designated in orange and red.]]
[[File:Political regime, 2023.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Global Political Regimes, 2023<ref>{{Cite web |title=V-Dem (2024) – processed by Our World in Data. "Political regime" [dataset]. V-Dem, "V-Dem Country-Year (Full + Others) v14" [original data]. |url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/political-regime#sources-and-processing |access-date=Oct 9, 2024 |website=Our World in Data}}</ref>
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{{Legend|#008000|Liberal democracy}}
{{legend|#80ff80|Electoral democracy}}
{{legend|#ffc0c0|Electoral autocracy}}
{{legend|#ff0000|Closed autocracy}}
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[[File:Famines by political regime.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Famines since 1850 by political regime. Autocratic countries have experienced significantly more [[famines]] than democratic countries.]]
Autocratic government has been central to political theory since the development of Ancient Greek [[political philosophy]].{{Sfn|Gerschewski|2023|p=28}} Despite its historical prominence, autocracy has not been widely recognized as its own political theory in the way that democracy has.{{Sfn|Gerschewski|2023|p=28}} Autocratic government is generally considered to be less desirable than democratic government. Reasons for this include its proclivity for corruption and violence as well as its lack of efficiency and its weakness in promoting liberty and transparency.{{Sfn|Mauk|2019|p=3}}

Historically, data on the operation of autocratic government has been limited, preventing detailed study.{{Sfn|Gerschewski|2023|p=7}} Study of postcolonial autocracy in Africa has been particularly limited, as these governments were less likely to keep detailed records of their activities relative to other governments at the time, and they frequently destroyed the records that did exist.{{Sfn|Shen-Bayh|2022|p=22}} Study of citizen support for autocratic government relative to democratic government has also been infrequent, and most studies conducted in this area have been limited to [[East Asia]].{{Sfn|Mauk|2019|pp=12–15}} Collection of information on autocratic regimes has improved in the 21st century, allowing for more detailed analysis.{{Sfn|Gerschewski|2023|p=7}}

Autocratic government has been found to have effects on a country's politics, including its government's structure and bureaucracy, long after it democratizes. Comparisons between regions have found disparities in citizen attitudes, policy preferences, and political engagement depending on whether it had been subject to autocracy, even in different regions within the same country. Citizens of [[postcommunist]] nations are more likely to distrust government and free markets, directly hindering the long-term economic prosperity of these nations. Xenophobia is generally more common in post-autocratic nations, and voters in these nations are more likely to vote for far-right or far-left political parties.{{Sfn|Grzymala-Busse|Finkel|2022|loc=The Legacies Autocracies Leave Behind}}

Many [[democracy indices]] have been developed to measure how democratic or authoritarian countries are, such as the [[Polity data series]], the [[Freedom in the World]] report, and the [[Democracy indices (V-Dem)|Varieties of Democracy]] indices.{{Sfn|Schmidt|2016|p=111}}{{Sfn|Boese|2019|p=95}} These indices measure various attributes of a government's actions and its citizens' rights to sort democracies and autocracies. These attributes might include [[Suffrage|enfranchisement]], [[freedom of expression]], [[freedom of information]], [[separation of powers]], or free and fair elections, among others.{{Sfn|Schmidt|2016|pp=112, 115–116}} Both the choice in attributes and the method of measuring them are subjective, and they are defined individually be each index.{{Sfn|Boese|2019|p=96}} Despite this, different democracy indices generally produce similar results.{{Sfn|Schmidt|2016|pp=122–123}}{{Sfn|Boese|2019|p=95}} Most discrepancies come from the measurement governments that blend democratic and autocratic traits.{{Sfn|Schmidt|2016|p=123}}<ref name=":1" /> Different democracy indices refer to such types of government using a range of different names, for example, hybrid regimes, anocracies, partly-free regimes or electoral autocracies, and use different definitions and indicators to distinguish them from full autocracies and democracies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cassani |first=Andrea |date=2014-11-01 |title=Hybrid what? Partial consensus and persistent divergences in the analysis of hybrid regimes |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0192512113495756 |journal=International Political Science Review |language=EN |volume=35 |issue=5 |pages=542–558 |doi=10.1177/0192512113495756 |issn=0192-5121}}</ref><ref name=":1" />

The concepts of tyranny and despotism as distinct modes of government were abandoned in the 19th century in favor of more specific typologies.{{Sfn|Richter|2005|p=222, 235}} Modern typology of autocratic regimes originates from the work of [[Juan Linz]] in the mid-20th century, when his division of democracy, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism became accepted.{{Sfn|Gerschewski|2023|p=31}} The first general theory of autocracy that defined it independently of other systems was created by [[Gordon Tullock]] in 1974 through applied [[public choice theory]].{{Sfn|Kurrild-Klitgaard|2000|p=63}} At the end of the Cold War, [[Francis Fukuyama]]'s theory of the [[end of history]] became popular among political scientists. This theory proposed that autocratic government was approaching a permanent decline to be replaced by [[liberal democracy]]. This theory was largely abandoned after the increase in autocratic government over the following decades.{{Sfn|Mauk|2019|p=1}} In the 2010s, the concept of "autocracy promotion" became influential in the study of autocracy, proposing that some governments have sought to establish autocratic rule in foreign nations, though subsequent studies have found little evidence to support that such efforts are as widespread or successful as originally thought.{{Sfn|Tansey|2015|pp=155–156}}{{Sfn|Way|2016|pp=64–65}}