Formal mechanisms in authoritarian regimes for distributing spoils and credibly committing to elites that they will receive ongoing benefits from cooperation: ruling parties, legislatures, cabinets, and patronage networks. Svolik (2009, 2012) shows these institutions reduce coup risk by solving the credible commitment problem — without them, the dictator cannot credibly promise not to eliminate rivals. Boix & Svolik (2013) demonstrate that power-sharing institutions are 'foundations of limited authoritarian government.'