What am I reading in ScholarWorks? July 2025

So far July has been mostly hot and humid, which always puts me in a mood and brings out my favorite saying that honestly never gets old—it’s not the heat, it’s the humanity! So for this month’s What Am I Reading in ScholarWorks, let’s lean into it.

Professor Steven Heydemann has an open access chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Authoritarian Politics entitled “Authoritarian Learning.” I love a good grappling with learning about learning. And learning about how authoritarian leaders/regimes get the hang of autocratization feels timely, no? The chapter gets into what is meant by authoritarian learning and makes a strong case for further study. I found the discussion of the different potential strength or weakness of a parliamentary versus presidential system, as it relates to democratic backsliding, to be especially thought-provoking. The paper is not about why this happens, but an exploration of how it happens. If theorizing is a calm and cooling balm for you too, then enjoy this interesting essay!

View in ScholarWorks: https://scholarworks.smith.edu/mes_facpubs/16/ 

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