Opposing Power: Building Opposition Alliances in Electoral Autocracies Ong Elvin Jiayun

Opposing Power argues that perceptions of regime vulnerability and mutual dependency by the opposition elite shape their efforts to build opposition alliances. At best, they coordinate to allocate only one opposition candidate to contest against the incumbent's candidate in each subnational electoral district to avoid splitting the opposition vote. When electoral autocracies are consistently dominant, opposition parties eschew building fully fledged alliances.

Of course, opposition party leaders only build alliances if they expect to depend on each other to achieve victory. However, when multiple regime-debilitating events strike within a short period of time to push an incumbent to the precipice of power, opposition elites raise their expectations of victory, galvanizing efforts to accept costly compromises to build alliances and topple the incumbent from power. If they perceive