Justifying Repression in Authoritarian Regimes of the Arab World: Official Framing and Target Audiences

• Applicant: Dr. Maria Josua
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 415741057

Autocracy research usually analyses repression and legitimation as separate strategies. However, state officials in authoritarian regimes not only resort to brute force for maintaining power, but often attempt to justify repressive acts towards different audiences. Existing research has not conceptualized this aspect of authoritarianism. The repression of some groups may lead to support by other target audiences, contributing to authoritarian regime maintenance. In turn, failing attempts at justification may trigger outrage and higher mobilization. The project seeks to fill this conceptual gap of political communication in autocracies by presenting a novel framework to comprehensively investigate justifications of repression. It seeks to answer the related questions of how repression is justified and why and with what effect certain justifications were chosen in the repression of Arab uprising protests. A structured, focused comparison of Tunisia and Morocco shows how similar protests during the Arab uprisings in 2010-2011 led to repressive responses with diverging justifications by state officials. The methods that will be used include content and frame analysis, process tracing, and field research with archival work as well as qualitative semi-structured interviews.The project sets out by mapping how repression against different opponents was justified in Tunisia and Morocco between 2001 and 2010. A dataset listing repressive episodes and incidents against targets in different regions serves as the basis for comparing authoritarian regimes’ framing of repression in three different areas: In addition to repression employed by the executive, the justifications upon the introduction of antiterror laws are analyzed. The project also scrutinizes the justifications given in court trials and verdicts against dissenters. The historical overview contextualizes the subsequent analysis. Process tracing serves to investigate the reasons for and effects of the specific mix of justifications during the protests of the Arab uprisings in Tunisia and Morocco. Also the dynamics of official framing and protesters’ counterframing are analysed. The reactions by domestic and international target audiences are enlightening as to when citizens and the international community reject or accept repressive acts by authoritarian regimes.The project’s major innovation is the conceptualization of justifications of repression in a heuristic model that can be applied to other contexts as well. The findings are expected to contribute to protest and repression research. Also the differentiated analysis of repression in various areas surpasses existing works. Authoritarianism research will benefit from the application of the framing approach, but mostly from the innovative consideration of domestic and international target audiences. This offers a dynamic and complex perspective on how repression can be used to sustain authoritarianism.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Canada, Ireland, USA
• Co-Investigators: Dr. André Bank; Mirjam Edel; Kressen Thyen; Dr. Holger Zapf
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Alexander Dukalskis; Professor Dr. Merouan Mekouar; Professor Sean Yom, Ph.D.