Natalie Wenzell Letsa, Yonatan L Morse, “Autocratic Legalism, Partisanship, and Popular Legitimation in Authoritarian Cameroon.” Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 87, No. 4 (2023): Pages 935–955
Summary: Authoritarian regimes regularly turn to the law to justify repression. This article examines whether invoking legal institutions has a persuasive effect on public perceptions of repression, and whether that effect is shaped by partisanship. The article uses the case of Cameroon’s Special Criminal Tribunal, created in 2011 to prosecute high-profile corruption cases. A survey experiment was designed that describes the arrest and trial of a suspected corrupt oppositional minister and reminds a treatment group about the Special Criminal Tribunal. The results show that neither regime nor opposition partisans are swayed by legal justifications for repression. By contrast, nonpartisans respond negatively to autocratic legalism, particularly those with low levels of regime trust.