%0 Journal Article
%T Why Do Autocrats Disclose? Economic Transparency and Inter
%A B. Peter Rosendorff
%A James R. Hollyer
%A James Raymond Vreeland
%J Journal of Conflict Resolution
%@ 1552-8766
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0022002718792602
%X Autocratic governments hold a preference for opacity. Autocracies are less transparent than democracies and a closed informational environment preserves autocratic regimes from mass unrest. Yet, autocracies vary widely in the extent to which they disclose economic information. In this article, we offer an explanation for why some autocrats choose to disclose. We contend that, paradoxically, some autocratic leaders may benefit from increasing the capacity of the populace to mobilize. In so doing, autocratic leaders threaten rival members of the elite, reducing the risk of elite challenges and increasing their freedom of maneuver. We contend that transparency acts as one mechanism toward these ends. We formalize these intuitions and demonstrate empirically that leaders in transparent autocracies enjoy a reduced hazard of removal via coup relative to their opaque counterparts. Personalistic dictators and entrenched autocrats¡ªwho suffer the smallest risk of sanctioning by their elites¡ªare particularly unlikely to disclose information
%K transparency
%K autocracy
%K coup
%K protest
%K political economy
%K political survival
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022002718792602