Targeting autocrats: Economic sanctions and regime change

Manuel Oechslin

European Journal of Political Economy, 2014, vol. 36, issue C, 24-40

Abstract: When it comes to international economic sanctions, the most frequent goal is regime change and democratization. Yet, past experiences suggest that such sanctions are often ineffective; moreover, quite paradoxically, targeted regimes tend to respond with policies that amplify the sanctions' harmful effects. This paper offers a political-economy model which provides an explanation for these observations. An autocratic regime lowers the supply of public goods to reduce private-sector productivity and hence the resources of potential challengers. As a result, sanctions-induced challenges become less likely, thereby buying the regime time to find exile opportunities. If these opportunities turn out to be of low quality, the regime prefers to hold out — and the sanctions fail.

Keywords: Economic sanctions; Regime change; Democratization; Public goods; Exile (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F51 O11 O19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:poleco:v:36:y:2014:i:c:p:24-40

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2014.07.003

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