On March 15, 2024, voters in Russia will go to the polls to choose who will be president. But the outcome already seems set in stone: Vladimir Putin will win another term in office. Russia's autocratic election is not unique, though. Since the Cold War's conclusion, about 69% of autocracies run elections of some kind. But why do they do it? This video explores the circumstances where they are sometimes forced to but how in other cases autocracies have found ways to exploit the electoral process for their own benefit. 0:00 Elections in Autocracies 2:24 Democratic Legacies 4:42 Diplomatic Pressure 7:16 Domestic Legitimacy 8:46 Information Gathering 11:09 Deflecting Blame 12:53 Controlling Local Officials 14:24 Making Credible Commitments 16:13 Efficiency Gains The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement. Media licensed under CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0): By LDPR.ru: https://ldpr.ru/members/825 Media licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0): By RIA Novosti: http://visualrian.ru/ru/site/gallery/#848095 Media licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0): By Duma.ru: http://duma.gov.ru/multimedia/photo/99325/#slider-99325-99310 http://duma.gov.ru/multimedia/photo/97838/#slider-97838-97824 By Government.ru: http://archive.government.ru/eng/docs/12281/ By Kremlin.ru: http://tours.kremlin.ru/tour/senate http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/events/photos/2007/04/25_125043.shtml http://20.kremlin.ru/en/2000/events/2/12 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/49899 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/50691 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/52820 http://www.en.kremlin.ru/catalog/persons/354/events/55769 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/56152 http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/57083 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/57416 http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/58502 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/60363 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/60490 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/60495 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/60669 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/60674 http://www.en.kremlin.ru/catalog/persons/379/events/61885 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/62096 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/68785 http://www.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/71452 http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/72081 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/72994 http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/73600 By Khamenei.ir: http://farsi.khamenei.ir/photo-album?id=36022 https://farsi.khamenei.ir/photo-album?id=42027 https://farsi.khamenei.ir/photo-album?id=44693