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

全球化导致了政治日益国际化。然而，在政治学中，跨国社会网络对本土政权的影响仍然是一个研究严重不足的课题。该项目的目的是通过探索侨民如何回应本国政权控制海外公民并从中受益的努力，回答侨民是否有助于威权政权的稳定这一问题。它还旨在通过比较五个不同国家的厄立特里亚侨民社区的跨国关系，审查东道国的政治制度和国外的政治社会化如何影响与国内政治有关的政治派别。该理论框架以跨国家主义理论、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，因为它是世界上散居人口最多的社会之一，目前是非洲最大的人均难民生产国。由于最近包括数以万计的厄立特里亚人在内的难民涌入欧洲，这一专题具有很高的政治意义，但同样也是因为日益实行的独裁政策的跨国化具有极其重要的意义。威权政权如何将流亡人口用于国内目的这一问题的相关性远远超出了本案例研究的范围。

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.