Existing models of non democratic regimes have been built starting from the criterion of the kind of authoritarian authority: personalistic (or sultanistic), military, (communist, nazi-fascist, nationalist, religious) single party regimes. Models of contemporary (military, neo-patrimonial, post-communist, theocratic) non democratic regimes have been built by the individuation of the main (‘lesser evil’, personal ties, legacies of the past, religion) legitimacy criterion of the power of non democratic authorities. Regimes governed by former communist leaders, frequent in Asia and eastern Europe, can be labeled as post-communist. In Africa (and in some Middle East country) there are many neo-patrimonial regimes, where authorities’ legitimacy is linked to the division of population in ethnic groups, and to the strength of local leaders that permeate both parties and armed forces; there are both personalistic and federal neo-patrimonial regimes. Military regimes are fewer than in the past; they have survived especially in Arab countries, being supported by Western countries as the ‘lesser evil’ against Islamic fundamentalist governments. Finally, in some Islamic countries there are theocratic regimes, whose legitimacy principle is religious: on one hand traditional values -through the subordination of law to Sharia- in Gulf monarchies, on the other hand fundamentalist values, like in the republic of Iran.
