Description
In recent decades, the global rise in autocracies has spurred scholars to investigate why and how these regimes support each other. This article contributes to these debates by re-focusing inquiries on the undertheorised issue of what states promote in autocracy promotion. By integrating insights from narrative theory, the study argues that autocracy promotion involves “branding” autocracy through the dissemination of narratives that marketise autocratic behaviour. These narratives enable autocratic practice in target states—a process here understood as “autocracy commercialisation”. The analysis links the motivations of autocracies to their narrative strategies, examining why these regimes support each other differently when faced with similar threats to their survival. The research employs a multiple holistic case study design and presents a frame analysis of Chinese official discourse on political protests in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, using MAXQDA for data analysis. The study contributes to the reference literature by providing a novel theoretical framework that incorporates the role of narrative construction in autocracy promotion research.
