Most of the world’s population lives in non-democratic political systems. This module will examine politics in authoritarian regimes and the survival of such regimes. Focusing on key concepts such as personalism, power-sharing, and cooptation, it introduces students to differences across authoritarian regimes and their central institutions and tools of rule including ruling parties, elections, repression, and propaganda. Teaching is based on a combination of theoretical and empirical perspectives, using case studies as illustrations throughout the module. Research, critical thinking and presentation skills will be developed through coursework assessment.