The Information Dilemma: How ICT Strengthen or Weaken Authoritarian Rule

Abstract

The Information Dilemma: How ICT Strengthen or Weaken Authoritarian Rule
This paper introduces a model that links ICT management to the consolidation of autocratic regimes. At its centre is the hypothesis that ICT can help both to undermine and to sustain autocratic rule. A second hypothesis is that the demise of an autocracy can be prevented, or at least delayed, if autocrats actively use ICT to enhance surveillance, accountability, indoctrination, and participation. This means that controlling ICT is not (only) a zero-sum game that is played between activists and censors. Perhaps more important is the role of ICT in the consolidation of an autocracy. Hence, popular access to ICT might or might not help undermine authoritarian rule, but if skillfully used, will definitely make a regime more resilient. The plausibility of the model will be illustrated by means of a brief comparison of two contrasting cases, China and Myanmar.