Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2026
This chapter argues that the literature on legislatures in authoritarian regimes has hitherto explained their origins, described their effects on regime duration, analyzed how they fulfill the roles of oversight and legitimation of autocratic regimes, and accounted for their influence on policy outcomes under highly specific conditions, but have not adequately explained another main function that legislatures are supposed to perform: lawmaking. The few works on this topic have highly specific scope conditions, present theories unrelated to the political dynamics of authoritarianism, and cannot explain variation of legislative outcomes across different types of dictatorship. We argue that these limitations can be overcome by extending the power-sharing theory of authoritarian government to account for lawmaking institutions and outcomes.
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