The International Audiences of Authoritarian Repression

According to the Varieties of Democracy Institute, in 2024, 71% of the world's population lived in nondemocracies. Governments in these regimes increasingly repress by denying employment, banning protests, and restricting access to welfare services. Democracies' ability to recognise and condemn such practices is crucial for holding autocrats accountable for human rights abuses. Yet we know surprisingly little about how international audiences perceive nonviolent repression, or what shapes their willingness to respond.

This project examines whether, and how, nonviolent repression influences international responses to human rights abuses. It focuses on three groups with important roles in shaping those responses: international policymakers, human rights practitioners, and citizens in democracies. Combining in-depth interviews with survey experiments, the project investigates whether nonviolent repression is perceived as more normatively 'justified' and less severe than violent repression, potentially muting international condemnation.