Autocrats, posing as populists, are successfully dismantling liberal democracies around the world. Why is their playbook so successful? Do autocrats leverage their conservative strength or a nation’s liberal weakness?
Based on my research of many sources of autocratic playbooks, ranging from formal academia to informal opinions, I have identified eight primary drivers of democratic decline. Each driver uses several authoritarian tactics to polarize the public, restrict human rights for the vilified outgroups, and enrich the regime’s loyalists.
These strategies are layered and interwoven. They include:
- Dividing society into loyalists vs enemies
- Controlling information and media
- Undermining court independence
- Rewriting national identity myths
- Corrupting elections by many cuts and slices
- Rewarding loyalty, punishing dissent
- Centralizing wealth and power among the political and business elites
- Convincing the public that iron-fist control is “stability and security”
You will learn about their thought leaders and the reasons for their attacks on liberal values.
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