Glass-jawed governance: fragile charisma and academic freedom in comparative context

Clicks: 3
ID: 338316
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Emerging

Ranked #30 of 31 articles by views in soviet social problems

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Abstract Recent attacks on academic freedom in the United States and abroad have renewed sociological interest in the cross-national forces that shape protections for academic inquiry. This article explains global variation in academic freedom by drawing on Weber’s conception of charismatic authority. Because charismatic authority depends on maintaining public proofs of exceptionalism, critics with professional legitimacy pose a unique threat. Academics often occupy this position, giving them the capacity to undermine a leader’s heroic narrative. We argue that charismatic executives respond by using cooptation and criminalization to weaken academic institutions and constrain scholarly autonomy. To evaluate this claim, we analyze a country–year panel of 159 countries from 1951 to 2018 using two-way fixed effects models. The results provide strong support for our core argument: increases in charismatic authority are followed by measurable declines in academic freedom, particularly in settings where institutional checks on the executive are weak.
Reference Key
openalex_W7225149229 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Andrew P. Davis, Adam Goldfarb
Are you one of these authors? Claim your profile
Journal soviet social problems
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/socpro/spag071
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spag071
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.