| How do authoritarian states attempt to acquire ideological resources vis-a-vis their youth populations? This thesis demonstrates that one way in which these states attempt to do so is by way of an institution I call the authoritarian youth group (AYG). Examples of AYG treated in the paper include the Hitler Jugend in Nazi Germany; the VLKSM or Komsomol in the U.S.S.R.; and Nashi ("Ours") in post-Communist Russia. Primarily on the basis of secondary-source material, I argue that, across cases, governors of authoritarian states create and maintain AYG primarily in order to curry ideological resources among young people. In particular, states use AYG principally in order to legitimate the nation-state by espousing particular national narratives and lionizing the state; to promote among young people a sense of national homogeneity; to propagate particular mores related to gender, family, sex, and sexuality; and to affect the formation of a loyal elite for the state's future. The paper aims to contribute to the comparative-politics subfield by enhancing scholars' knowledge of authoritarian governance, ideological resources in authoritarian contexts, and, most importantly, the relationship between the authoritarian state and young people. |
