Authoritarian States (Part 7 of 13) - Emergence - Structural factors - IB History

Structural factors refer to the context that makes the rise to power of an authoritarian state more likely. Authoritarian regimes are unusual in countries that are rich, socially stable and that have a tradition of constitutionally limited, civilian government.  If they do emerge in these sorts of countries, it is usually the result of a crisis, brought about by external factors such as war or international economic crisis.   As usual with history, the teachers favourite acronym PESC is a good way to go about organising these structural factors - the political, economic, social, and cultural conditions that encourage authoritarian rule.
Another in the series of short films introducing the subject of modern authoritarian states for history students of the IB Diploma.