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Contemporary hybrid regimes

If in the expression “hybrid regime” the adjective will be the focus of this short essay, understanding the meaning and implications of the term “regime” is an unavoidable starting point. The subsequent questions will be: How do we define a hybrid regime? Are there different types? And what is the crux of the issue today?

The mainstream notion of regime refers to all government institutions and norms, either formalized or informally recognized as existing in a given territory and concerning a given population. When, more precisely, we look at the patterns that shape the channels of access to the leading government positions, the characteristics of the actors who are admitted or excluded from such access, and the resources or strategies that they can use to gain access, we understand that to have a regime we need some stabilization. If there is no stabilization, we are in a fluid transitional phase that can also go towards either an authoritarian solution or a democracy.

September 17, 2024 - Leonardo Morlino - Hot TopicsIssue 5 2024Magazine

Photo: wellphoto / Shutterstock

But what does stabilization mean? How long should this situation last? Here, the decision is necessarily an arbitrary one. If we refer to the experience of transitions to democracy over the past decades, since the early 1970s, our experience suggests that there is an institutional stabilization if there have been at least three elections, that is, about a decade. Elections, which also take place in authoritarian regimes, have a stabilizing impact on the existing institutions as they give formal power to a new or even old political elite and legitimize that elite. The problem with this decision is that it comes once a decade is over. From this perspective, it is an ex-post assessment, but we often need an immediate evaluation. Consequently, we often are compelled to assess a “hybrid arrangement” or “hybrid situation”. This is when we have yet to determine if it will be a regime and how long it will last.

Defining hybrid regime

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