While authoritarian regimes lack popular consent by definition, many of them are among the countries with the highest levels of popular support. In this four-paper dissertation, I examine various overlooked strategies that are commonly used by authoritarian regimes to shape citizens' perceptions of their government and to influence the public's opinion towards the regime. In the first paper on anti-corruption campaigns, I show that popular support for the government depends in a conditional way on the perceived effectiveness AND motivation of the anti-corruption campaigns. Due to possible preference falsification, anti-corruption campaigns that are perceived as targeting political rivals increase reported support for the government but not necessarily actual support. In the second paper, I separate the actual levels of support and reported levels of support for the government using a list experiment. I find that respondents who are coopted by the government have higher actual support for the regime and are less likely to inflate their support in public while respondents who experienced repression in the past have low actual support for the regime but are more likely to report inflated support for the regime. In the third paper, I examine a new form of propaganda, native political advertising, in which political actors buy space in independent media outlets to publish advertisements that are camouflaged as standard news stories. I provide the first theoretical framework and empirical evidence on how governments can use native political advertising to influence public opinion both domestically and abroad. In the fourth paper, I examine the strategic use of populism in authoritarian regimes and challenge the conventional wisdom that populism is rare under authoritarian rule. I also provide the first comparative and generalizable way of measuring populist rhetoric using text data.

Dorothy Wright Nelson was a prominent federal judge on the level just below the U.S. Supreme Court for over 40 years. One of the early tenured female law professors and one of the rare female deans in the U.S. legal academy in the 1960s and '70s, her expertise was in reforming courts to make them more just and accessible for all people. When she became a federal judge in 1980, she helped to make the federal courts more efficient and provide litigants with alternatives - including mediation and arbitration - to resolve cases without greater expense and delay. An ardent believer in more peaceful resolution of conflicts, Judge Nelson educated judges around the world on conflict resolution and the rule of law, often while engaging quietly in human rights advocacy for persecuted Bahá'ís around the globe. Her Bahá'í faith also inspired her judicial opinions providing more equality and due process for the marginalized, including the poor, racial minorities, immigrants, mentally ill and the powerless. Dorothy and her husband, a state court judge, balanced their professional achievements with their personal commitments in a manner unusual for their time. They devoted considerable energy to raising their two children, spending time with their extended family, and engaging in Bahá'í activities (including world travel, youth camps, weekly Sunday School and firesides in their home). This book captures the life story of an extraordinary female leader and trailblazer in a highly traditional, male-dominated profession, unafraid to challenge the status quo in her pleasant, optimistic, determined and collegial manner.

This is an in-depth look at how South Africa is being shaped. Drawing directly on the experience of ordinary South Africans, both black and white and from all walks of life, the author examines the changes that are being witnessed throughout the country and the effects of these changes on people.