Why might the commonality of authoritarian regimes in the developing world fail to suggest high levels of autonomy, even though on the surface it appears that these regimes should exhibit high autonomy?

These regimes often lose their independence through corruption to groups that exploit them as a resources.

Explanation:

Authoritarian regimes are forms of government which has strong power at the center but with little political freedoms. There are also restrictions on interest group activities and poor social mobilizations.

These regimes exist in certain areas of the developing countries and they are expected to attain a certain degree of autonomy. This has not been the case because of the huge independence of these regimes on groups that exploit them in most cases as resources. These regimes are also known to have weak legitimacy with over centralization of decision making.