Economic Sanctions by Non-Democracies: A Study of Cases from China and Russia

Abstract

Do political institutions matter in explaining how economic sanctions are used? The current understanding of sanctions imposed by non-democratic sender countries is limited in the literature, as existing theories predominantly focus on the behaviors and strategies of democratic sender countries, leaving a notable gap in systematic comprehension. Using the existing dataset on sanctions, we theoretically and empirically distinguished characteristics of sanctions by non-democracies in terms of their motivating issues, types, and objectives. We also assessed our arguments based on recent data on Chinese and Russian sanctions since 2005 and a case illustration of China's de facto sanctions on South Korea for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense deployment beginning in 2017.