Authoritarianism, violence, and varieties of gender regimes: Violence as an institutional domain

Summary

This paper extends gender regime theory by introducing 'authoritarian' as a third variety of public gender regime alongside social democratic and neoliberal types, thereby broadening transnational applicability. It reconceptualises violence as a fourth institutional domain (alongside economy, polity, and civil society) and develops differentiated analysis of how this domain operates across regime varieties. The framework is applied to assess whether feminist projects using criminal justice systems to address violence produce carceral outcomes—concluding this is contingent on regime type rather than inevitable.

UK applicability

The framework may inform UK policy analysis of how gender relations and violence operate within the United Kingdom's social democratic gender regime, and how criminal justice responses to violence intersect with welfare and equality frameworks. The paper's distinction between regime types could illuminate comparative analysis of UK interventions versus those in authoritarian or neoliberal contexts.

Key measures

Conceptual analysis of gender regime typologies; comparative analysis of violence as an institutional domain across regime varieties; examination of feminist anti-violence project outcomes in relation to carcerality

Outcomes reported

The paper develops a theoretical framework analysing violence as an institutional domain differentiated across varieties of gender regime (social democratic, neoliberal, and authoritarian). It examines how criminal justice interventions addressing violence produce different carceral or non-carceral consequences depending on the gender regime type.

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