title: The Lukashenko Regime in Belarus
abstract: Abstract President Alexander Lukashenko is Europe’s longest-serving political leader; Belarus is often dubbed Europe’s ‘last dictatorship’. This chapter addresses Lukashenko’s rise to power and the consolidation of his non-democratic regime through circumvention, subordination, and commandeering. The political system adapted and changed to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century by drawing on a variety of elite groups and opportunistically appealing to a range of potential supporters in 