ABSTRACT
This chapter examines regime misclassification and its important consequences for social science research and scholarship. It highlights the problem as it relates to the basic typological distinction between democracy and authoritarianism. The chapter also illustrates how scholars working in various intellectual traditions have used conflicting conceptual and operational definitions resulting in widespread regime misidentification and descriptive distortion of numerous national political regimes. It offers pluralist authoritarianism as a solution to the problem of regime misclassification and shows how white supremacy and male supremacy can be forms of pluralist authoritarianism. The chapter demonstrates applicability of pluralist authoritarianism (PA) in a brief comparative historical analysis of three important cases of national regime evolution: the United States, Switzerland, and South Africa. It outlines how PA forces to rethink regime classification and comparative regime theory and summarizes the overall potential contribution of PA.
