Thammasat University students interested in political science, history, democracy studies, sociology, anthropology, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 22 November Zoom webinar on The Sound of Silence: Championing Democracy in an Authoritarian Society.

The event, on Friday, 22 November at 8:30am Bangkok time, is organized by the National University of Singapore (NUS).

The TU Library collection includes books about democracy and authoritarianism.

Students are invited to register at this link.

https://nus-sg.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvce-sqT8vE9MscPYQnl7wgjQpxUI-Uhat#/registration

The event announcement states:

Abstract:

Does democratic public diplomacy work in authoritarian societies? This seminar investigates the impact of the US Embassy’s online advocacy of American Democracy in China through two survey experiments conducted respectively before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results suggest that American public diplomacy can be effective in improving Chinese audiences’ attitudes towards the United States, but more so as a defence strategy when the United States’ international image is under threat rather than as a proactive tool for influence in more normal times. In addition, the embassy’s messaging had little effect on Chinese audiences’ attitudes towards democracy, views on China, or behavioural intentions such as protest, in both contexts. This underscores the challenges of democracy promotion while also undermining Chinese government’s frequent attempts at blaming domestic grievances on “foreign forces”. The findings illuminate both the limits and potential of democratic public diplomacy.

About the Speaker:

Haifeng Huang is an associate professor of political science at the Ohio State University. His current research focuses on information flow and public opinion dynamics in authoritarian states, including foreign information, propaganda, misinformation and political trust, especially in the context of China. […]

In 2015, Professor Haifeng published an article in the American Political Science Review, International Knowledge and Domestic Evaluations in a Changing Society: The Case of China.

The article’s abstract:

Do knowledge and information about foreign countries affect people’s evaluation of domestic situations? Using unique survey and experimental data, this research finds that Chinese citizens with more positive perceptions and especially overestimation of foreign socioeconomic conditions have more negative evaluations of China and the Chinese government. Moreover, correcting socioeconomic misinformation about foreign countries improves one’s evaluations of China, indicating that the causal direction is at least partly from rosier estimation of foreign conditions to lower domestic evaluations. The relationship between domestic evaluations and international political knowledge, as measured by familiarity with political affairs and figures in foreign countries, is typically not significant, although awareness of political instability in other countries can increase satisfaction with one’s own country. These results contribute both substantively and conceptually to the study of politically relevant knowledge and information, and shed new light on the nuances of information flow and opinion formation in changing societies.

In 2017, he coauthored an article, Information from Abroad: Foreign Media, Selective Exposure and Political Support in China, in the British Journal of Political Science.

Its abstract:

What kind of content do citizens in a developing and authoritarian country like to acquire from Western free media? What are the effects of their potentially selective exposure? In a survey experiment involving 1,200 Chinese internet users from diverse socio-demographic backgrounds, this study finds that Chinese citizens with higher pro-Western orientations and lower regime evaluations are more inclined to read content that is positive about foreign countries or negative about China. More importantly, reading relatively positive foreign media content about foreign countries can improve rather than worsen the domestic evaluations of citizens who self-select such content. The article argues that this is because reputable Western media outlets’ reports are generally more realistic than overly rosy information about foreign socio-economic conditions that popularly circulates in China. Consequently, foreign media may have a corrective function and enhance regime stability in an authoritarian country by making regime critics less critical. The article also introduces a new variant of the patient preference trial design that integrates self-selection and random assignment of treatments in a way that is useful for studying information effects.

The same year, another article, Who Wants to Leave China?, appeared in the Journal of East Asian Studies.

Its abstract:

Why are Chinese people moving abroad in unprecedented numbers? Using unique experimental and survey data, this research finds that Chinese citizens with more positive perceptions and, especially, overestimation of foreign socioeconomic conditions are more interested in going abroad. Moreover, correcting socioeconomic overestimation of foreign countries reduces their interest in leaving China, indicating that there is a causal effect from rosier perceptions of foreign conditions to higher interest in going abroad, and emigration does not always represent well-informed “voting with the feet.” The relationship between international political knowledge and exit intentions, on the other hand, is not significant or consistent, suggesting that Chinese citizens’ interest in going abroad is more socioeconomic than political in nature. These results contribute to the study of citizen misinformation, challenge a prevalent assumption in the international migration literature, and help us understand one of the most important social trends in the world’s largest developing and authoritarian country.

Here are some thoughts on authoritarianism by authors, most of whom are represented in the TU Library collection:

No moral system can rest solely on authority.

• J. Ayer, in Humanist Outlook (1968)

The Napoleonic rule which followed within a decade after the French Revolution is generally conceded to be the prototype of modern dictatorships. It was the forerunner not only historically, but psychologically as well, for it demonstrated a principal function of dictatorship as a psychocultural emergent: a reversion to authoritarian rule after a too drastic attempt to impose democracy on an authoritarian culture. Napoleon’s assumption of the role of dictator and then emperor, with the wholehearted support of significant segments of postrevolutionary French society, illustrates a fact that has been true of virtually every dictatorship since then: the inability of an authoritarian culture to absorb too much self-government too suddenly without reverting, at least temporarily, to some form of paternalistic-authoritarian rule. From the first French Republic to the German Weimar Republic, it has been proved again and again that, while the outward forms of democracy may be achieved overnight by revolution, the psychological changes necessary to sustain it cannot.

• M. Gilbert in The Psychology of Dictatorship (1950)

Violence is the whole essence of authoritarianism, just as the repudiation of violence is the whole essence of anarchism.

• Errico Malatesta, “Anarchism, Authoritarian Socialism and Communism” in Fede (1923).

We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.

• Lionel Trilling, notebook entry (1948)

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)