Rise to power of authoritarian states - Part 1 (International School History Teacher)

Structural factors refer to the context that makes the rise to power of an authoritarian state more likely. Authoritarian regimes are unusual in countries that are rich, socially stable and that have a tradition of constitutionally limited, civilian government.  If they do emerge in these sorts of countries, it is usually the result of a crisis, brought about by external factors such as war or international economic crisis.   As usual with history, the history teachers favorite acronym PESC is a good way to go about organizing these structural factors – PESC = the political, economic, social, and cultural conditions that encourage authoritarian rule.