answer:
Broadly defined, authoritarian states include countries that lack the civil liberties such as freedom of religion, or countries in which the government and the opposition do not alternate in power at least once following free elections.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of examples of states which are currently (or frequently) characterized as authoritarian:
Angola under the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola Party (1975–)[65]
Azerbaijan under Heydar Aliyev (1993-2003) and Ilham Aliyev (2003–)[66]
Bahrain under the House of Khalifa (1746–)[67]
Belarus under Alexander Lukashenko (1994–)[68][69] on account of Lukashenko's self-described authoritarian style of government[70][71][72]
Bosnia and Herzegovina / Republika Srpska under Milorad Dodik (2006–)[73][74][75]
Burundi under Pierre Nkurunziza (2005–)[76]
Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge and Hun Sen (1985–)[77]
Cameroon under Paul Biya (1982–)[78][79]
Chad under Idriss Deby (1990–)[80]
People's Republic of China under the Communist Party of China (1949–) “Some scholars have deemed the Chinese system a 'fragmented authoritarianism' (Lieberthal), a 'negotiated state' or a 'consultative authoritarian regime'"[81] According to research by John Kennedy at al. (2018), Chinese citizens with higher education tend to participate less in local elections and have lower levels of democratic values when compared to those with only compulsory education.[82]
Democratic Republic of the Congo under Mobutu Sese Seko, Laurent-Désiré Kabila and Joseph Kabila (1965–2019)[83]
Republic of the Congo under Denis Sassou Nguesso (1979–)[84]
Cuba under the Communist Party of Cuba (1959–)[85]
Egypt under Hosni Mubarak (1981–2011) and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (2014–)[86]
Equatorial Guinea under Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (1979–)[87]
Eritrea under Isaias Afwerki (1993–)[88]
Ethiopia under Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (1991–)[89]
Gabon under Omar Bongo and Ali Bongo Ondimba (1967–)[90]
Hungary under Viktor Orbán (2010–) has recently moved more towards illiberalism[91][92][93]
Iran under Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979),[94] and later Ruhollah Khomeini and Ali Khamenei (1981–)[95] Linz wrote in 2000 that "it is difficult to fit the Iranian regime into the existing typology, as it combines the ideological bent of totalitarianism with the limited pluralism of authoritarianism and holds regular elections in which candidates advocating differing policies and incumbents are often defeated"[96]
Jordan under Hussein bin Talal (1952–1999) and Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein (1999–)[97]
Kazakhstan under Nursultan Nazarbayev (1990–2019) and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (2019–)[78]
Laos under the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (1975–)[98]
Morocco under Mohammed VI[97][99][100]
Montenegro under Milo Đukanović and DPS (1990–)[101][102][103][104][105]
North Korea under the rule of the Kim dynasty and the Korean Workers' Party (1947–)[106]
Oman under Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said[107]
Palestine under the Palestine Liberation Organization (1964–present) and Hamas (2007–present)[108]
Qatar under the House of Thani[109]
Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev (1999–) (see Putinism for more) has authoritarian tendencies, and is described by some as "really a mixture of authoritarianism and managed democracy"[110][111][112]
Rwanda under Paul Kagame (2000–)[113]
Saudi Arabia under the House of Saud (1744–)[114]
Serbia under Aleksandar Vučić (2012–)[115][116][117][118]
Singapore is considered authoritarian, especially under Lee Kuan Yew until 2015.[119][120]
South Sudan under Salva Kiir Mayardit (2011–)[121]
Syria under the Ba'athist regime and al-Assad family (1963–)[122]
Tajikistan under Emomali Rahmon (1994–)[123]
Thailand under General Prayut Chan-o-cha who overthrew the democratically elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra in a military coup and installed a military junta to oversee the governance of Thailand (2014–)[124]
Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2003–) described as a “competitive authoritarian regime”[125]
Turkmenistan under Saparmurat Niyazov (1991–2006) and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow (2006–)[126]
United Arab Emirates under the six royal families of the United Arab Emirates (10 February 1972–)[127][128]
Uganda since independence (1964–)[129]
Uzbekistan under Islam Karimov (1989–2016)[130][131] and Shavkat Mirziyoyev (2016-)[132]
Venezuela under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro (1999–)[133]
Vietnam under the Vietnamese Communist Party (1976–)[134]
Authoritarian regimes
The Democracy Index is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a UK-based company. Its intention is to measure the state of democracy in 167 countries, of which 166 are sovereign states and 164 are UN member states.
