Seminar

Legislative Inclusion, Ethnic Power Relations, and Terrorism in Autocracies
Sara M. Polo
University of Essex

Chairs
Juan Masullo & Andrea Ruggeri
University of Milan 

10 November 2025, h. 12:30
Seminar Room (Passione side)
Department of Social and Political Sciences
Via Passione 15, Milan

Abstract
From the late 19th century to today, legislatures have been present in 80% of dictatorships. How legislatures affect outcomes in authoritarian regimes, and why they exist in the first place, are central puzzles in research on authoritarian politics. A prominent argument holds that authoritarian legislatures are instruments of power sharing that constrain dictators while allowing them to coopt elites as well as potential opponents. Therefore, legislatures serve the function of stabilizing autocratic rule. In contrast, we argue that under certain conditions, legislatures have the opposite effect. When autocratic rule co-exists with powerful ethnoreligious cleavages, the presence of an elected legislature can have destabilizing effects if inclusion is selective and reinforces the exclusion of specific ethnoreligious groups. Excluded groups are, in fact, more likely to respond to elected legislatures with an escalation of terrorism and violent conflict. We test this argument with new data on terrorism by ethnic and ethnoreligious groups in autocracies (1970–2016). By explicitly examining the ethno-political context of authoritarian regimes and legislatures, we demonstrate that legislatures, if not carefully designed, can worsen political violence in autocracies and ultimately undermine the regime's survival.

Bio

Sara M. Polo studies the causes and impacts of political violence, terrorism, and gender-based violence in conflict and post-conflict settings. Her research explores themes like the migration-terrorism nexus, authoritarian institutions, and public violence against women.