Barbara Yoxon is a lecturer in International Politics at Lancaster University. She is a political scientist whose research centres on authoritarian regimes, international conflict, and political prejudice. Her work examines why some authoritarian regimes are durable, while others frequently transition from one type of autocracy to another. She is especially interested in the way international events, conflicts and crises affect autocratic stability and the way regime elites use them to legitimise political power. She is interested in all aspects of autocratic governance, including political institutions and parties, protest and mass mobilisation, autocratic elections, repression, and democratic backsliding. Her thesis on the relationship between territorial threats and autocratic stability won the British International Studies Association Michael Nicholson Prize for the best PhD thesis in international politics in 2018. She is currently teaching an MA course on the Politics of Authoritarian Rule.
In addition to studying the dynamics of autocratic rule, she is also interested in the study of political behaviour in both democratic and authoritarian regimes. She is particularly interested in what motivates individuals to engage in political activities, and what shapes their political and social attitudes. She is particularly interested in the causes of political prejudice, paying attention to both structural and psychological drivers of bias.