ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses different types of illiberal regimes: dictatorship, despotism, tyranny, autocracy, totalitarianism, and authoritarianism. In a preliminary sense, these regimes are identified as “illiberal” because they are not based on the primacy of individual liberty. In institutional terms, they do not recognize the supremacy of rights, limited government, or the rule of law. The chapter combines conceptual, institutional, and social-historical approaches. The goal of the conceptual analysis is to establish the essential features of each regime type. The institutional analysis explores how institutions matter and, in particular, how the status and role of one institution (e.g. elections, basic rights) differs from one regime type to another. The historical approach is prompted by the need to account for the persistence of some of the analyzed concepts across time and space. Attention is also devoted to the contemporary relevance of these concepts and problems caused by their occasionally loose application.
