ABSTRACT
This chapter engages with the existing academic debates on contemporary non-democratic regimes. No one single typology can be employed to explain all aspects of non-democratic rule in Belarus today. This chapter examines the debates about forms of non-democratic regime, their claims to legitimacy, and how they rule, in order to formulate the idea of adaptive authoritarianism to conceptualize the political system built around Lukashenka. It looks at personalist rule and the relevance of neopatrimonialism, both in terms of the personalization of power and the use of patron–client networks. It presents the arguments around how democratic legitimation can be managed through electoral authoritarianism, as well as the opportunities and risks presented by performance legitimation. It outlines the variety of coercive measures that can be employed by non-democratic rulers. It then turns to the strategies that are often employed by opposition forces in order to challenge non-democratic systems. Many of these elements exist on a continuum, allowing for adaptability and flexibility in how they are deployed, which is highly relevant in the case of Belarus. Evidence of this will be demonstrated in the rest of the book, which will illustrate how these tools have been implemented in practice under Lukashenka.
