Do Diasporas Contribute to the Persistence of Authoritarian Rule? Responses of Eritrean citizens abroad to transnational governance

全球化导致政治的跨国化日益加剧。然而，跨国社会网络对本国政权的影响仍然是政治学中一个严重缺乏研究的课题。该项目的目的是通过探索散居者如何回应其本国政权控制其海外公民的努力并从中受益，来回答散居者是否有助于专制政权稳定的问题。它进一步旨在通过比较厄立特里亚侨民社区在五个不同国家的跨国关系，研究东道国的政治制度和国外的政治社会化如何影响有关祖国政治的政治从属关系。其理论框架以跨国主义理论、民主化理论和威权统治的持久性理论为基础。厄立特里亚有资格作为一个案例研究，因为它是世界上最散居的社会之一，目前是非洲人均难民最多的国家。由于最近包括数万厄立特里亚人在内的难民涌入欧洲，这一主题具有高度的政治相关性，但同样也因为威权政策日益跨国化的巨大重要性。专制政权如何利用流亡人口实现国内目的，这个问题的相关性远远超出了本案例研究的范畴。

Globalisation has led to increasing transnationalisation of politics. Yet, the influence of transnational social networks on homeland regimes has remained a severely understudied subject in political science. The aim of the project is to answer the question if diasporas contribute to the stabilisation of authoritarian regimes by exploring how diasporas respond to the efforts of their home regime to control its citizens abroad and to benefit from them. It further aims at examining how the political systems of host states and political socialization abroad influence political affiliations regarding homeland politics by comparing the transnational relations of Eritrean diaspora communities in five different countries. The theoretical framework is based on theories of transnationalism and theories of democratisation and persistence of authoritarian rule. Eritrea qualifies as a case study because it is among the most diasporic societies worldwide and currently the largest per-capita refugee-producer in Africa. The topic is of high political relevance due to the recent refugee influx into Europe including tens of thousands of Eritreans, but equally because of the immense importance of increasing transnationalisation of authoritarian policies. The relevance of the question how authoritarian regimes instrumentalise their exiled populations for domestic purposes extends far beyond this case study.