autoritari

Autoritari is a term used in political science and public discourse to describe regimes, leaders, or practices characterized by centralized power and constrained political freedoms. The term is closely related to the English "authoritarian" and is used across several languages to denote governance that concentrates authority in a single entity or a narrow elite, with limited checks and balances.

Etymology: from Latin auctoritas, authority; cognates appear in many languages to describe power exercised in a concentrated and unchallengeable way.

Core features typically include centralized executive power; weak or subordinate judicial independence; limited or manipulated elections; suppression of political opposition, civil society, and independent media; and rule by decree or personalist authority. Some authoritarian regimes employ ritualized elections or controlled party systems, while avoiding full mass mobilization or a comprehensive ideological revolution.

Autoritari vs totalitarism: totalitarian systems seek total control over public and private life and an official ideology; authoritarian regimes prioritize political control and may tolerate private life or economic activity, with less emphasis on ideological or cultural coherence.

Historical and contemporary context: classic examples cited in historiography include Francoist Spain, Estado Novo in Portugal, and Chile under Pinochet. In contemporary analysis, scholars point to various regimes in parts of Eurasia, the Middle East, and Latin America as exhibiting authoritarian practices; some frameworks describe them as competitive authoritarianism or hybrid regimes for those with elections but limited pluralism.

Measurement and perception: organizations such as Freedom House and the Economist Intelligence Unit assess political rights and civil liberties to categorize regimes along a spectrum from free to not free, while political scientists discuss subtypes like soft authoritarianism and pluralist but constrained authorities.