Immersion and Distancing: Post-Charismatic Succession in Modern Autocracies

The departure of a charismatic leader in an authoritarian system poses substantial risks for regime durability. Designated succession guarantees a smooth transfer of power and reduces the danger to regime longevity. The manner in which political successors leverage and institutionalize charismatic attachments to regime founders is crucial in determining their own and the regime’s political survival. This article presents a new theoretical framework for examining the process of post-charismatic legitimation in two personalistic autocracies: Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Authoritarian power justification can be understood through two modes of post-charismatic succession: immersion and distancing. If successfully performed, charismatic attachments and public loyalties to regime founders transfer to their appointees, reviving existing power narratives: an immersion strategy. However, if the charismatic leader loses popular support, the distancing strategy allows an anointed heir to reject patronal legacies. The comparison between post-charismatic successions in Baku and Astana demonstrates the practical implications of the immersion and distancing approaches to legitimation. This analysis is based on expert interviews, fieldwork notes, and archival data.