How to build a dictatorship?
Common social and legal features of authoritarian regimes in the 20th century
Lecturer: dr. Anna Doszpoth
Monday 18:00-19:30
Department of Criminology
Course description
Although oppressive regimes existed and exist in countless forms, the differences between the Numerus clausus law in Hungary, the concept of Year Zero in Cambodia, the public speeches of Eva Perón to the Descamisados, the military parades for the entertainment of Francisco Franco, or the Monuments of Stalin fade away, if we take a closer look at the core aims they are intended to achieve.
The course offers an overview on the common social, legal and economic features of dictatorial regimes illustrated with examples from the 20th century and aims to give an insight into their historical and legal framework as well as into the relevant criminological theories of state criminality.
Course schedule
1st week: Introduction. Different types of government systems, different types of dictatorships
2nd week: Legalisation of unlawfulness, state crimes
3rd week: Crime is what the powerful define as a crime. Targeting the defenceless, the suspicious and the dangerous ones, eliminating political opponents
4th week: Justification of the power: the scapegoats and the sheep
5th week: Media misuse, propaganda and moral panics
6th week: Student’s presentations, part I.
7th week: Financing the empire, economic measurements
8th week: Militarisation
9th week: True believers, fanatics, opportunists. The leader’s closest circle
10th week: Student’s presentations, part II.
11th week: Public support or blindfolded masses? A story of bystanders and various forms of denial
12th week: Exam
Assessment
Students may choose to write the written exam (based on the materials uploaded to Neptun) or to submit an essay of max. 30.000 characters on a previously agreed topic until the last week of the semester.
The precondition of the exam is a ca. 5 min. presentation in class on a book/movie/other illustration of a dictatorship, a dictator or other related topic chosen by the student, preferably from his/her country of origin.
Course materials
PPT slides and further readings will be uploaded weekly to Neptun.
Recommended readings
Stanley Cohen: Human Rights and Crimes of the State: The Culture of Denial, Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 1993, 26 (97-115).
Penny J. Green, Tony Ward: State Crime, Human Rights and the Limits of Criminology, Social Justice, 2000, Vol. 27. No. 1. (79), 101-115.
Henri Tajfel: Social identity and intergroup behaviour, Social Science Information, 13 (2), 65-93.
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