Time for a New Political Regime Typology? A Vectoral Classification to Address Intra Regime Shifts and International Dynamics

Abstract. This article proposes a novel typology for classifying political regimes, addressing the limitations of previous models by incorporating three organisational nexuses (party-organisations, militaries, tutelary bodies) and three vectoral dimensions (tyranny, ideology, multipartyism). This approach allows for a dynamic understanding of regime behaviour, capturing intra-regime shifts without requiring reclassification. The typology innovatively distinguishes between personalist regimes, ideocracies, and hybrid forms, providing a nuanced framework for analysing contemporary and historical political systems. By integrating ideology back into the analysis and offering a comprehensive measure of tyranny, this classification enhances our ability to study regime resilience, autocratisation, and democratisation, as well as how political regimes collaborate and learn in the international system. Keywords. Dictatorship, Authoritarianism, Totalitarianism, Personalism, Tyranny, Ideology, Pluralism.