The Autocratic Voter
-
Select format
-
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Publication date:
- 13 August 2025
- 07 August 2025
- ISBN:
- 9781009639903
- 9781009639859
- 9781009639873
- Dimensions:
- (229 x 152 mm)
- Weight & Pages:
- 0.564kg, 278 Pages
- Dimensions:
- (229 x 152 mm)
- Weight & Pages:
- 0.42kg, 278 Pages
You may already have access via personal or institutional login
Show more authors 
You may already have access via personal or institutional login
Book description
In The Autocratic Voter, Natalie Wenzell Letsa explores the motivations behind why citizens in electoral autocracies choose to participate in politics and support political parties. With electoral autocracies becoming the most common type of regime in the modern world, Letsa challenges the dominant materialist framework for understanding political behavior and presents an alternative view of partisanship as a social identity. Her book argues that despite the irrationality and obstacles to participating in autocratic politics, people are socialized into becoming partisans by their partisan friends and family. This socialization process has a cascading effect that can either facilitate support for regime change and democracy or sustain the status quo. By delving into the social identity of partisanship, The Autocratic Voter offers a new perspective on political behavior in electoral autocracies that has the potential to shape the future of these regimes.
Reviews
‘In The Autocratic Voter, Natalie Letsa offers a compelling, fresh perspective on political engagement under dictatorship. Challenging dominant views of political behavior rooted in material considerations, Letsa explores how partisanship in electoral autocracies emerges as a powerful social identity shaped by family and community networks. Drawing on rich qualitative and survey data from Cameroon, Letsa provides an insightful framework to understand political engagement's social and geographic basis in settings where electoral participation rarely brings change. It is an important read for those interested in the dynamics of partisanship in authoritarian politics and the social forces that sustain and undermine them.
Guy Grossman - University of Pennsylvania
Contents
Contents
References
Metrics
Altmetric attention score
Full text views
Full text views helpTotal number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...
* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.
Usage data cannot currently be displayed.
Accessibility standard: Missing or limited accessibility features
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.
Accessibility Information
The PDF of this book is known to have missing or limited accessibility features. We may be reviewing its accessibility for future improvement, but final compliance is not yet assured and may be subject to legal exceptions. If you have any questions, please contact accessibility@cambridge.org.
Content Navigation
Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.
Index navigation
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.
Reading Order and Textual Equivalents
Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.
Visual Accessibility
Use of high contrast between text and background colour
You benefit from high‐contrast text, which improves legibility if you have low vision or if you are reading in less‐than‐ideal lighting conditions.
Structural and Technical Features
ARIA roles provided
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.