From Domestic to Extraterritorial Repression : A quantitative study of how authoritarian regime type affects the incidence of transnational repression

Abstract: Authoritarian states have an extended reach on their populations residing outside of the country borders due to globalization and digitalization. This is part of the explanation of the increase of transnational repression globally. The aim of this paper is to investigate how authoritarian regime type affects the incidence of transnational repression. A bivariate hypothesis test is conducted using large scale quantitative methods and mediation analysis in order to conduct the study and investigate how the effect of regime type on transnational repression is mediated by domestic repression. Personalist regimes are expected to repress more domestically than for example single party regimes and therefore engage more in transnational repression. The results are inconclusive for the different measures of personalist rule. It is also suggested from the results that the effect of regime type on transnational repression is partially mediated by the level of domestic repression in the country.