Autocrats hate these principles [rule of law, transparency, accountability and related institutions] because they threaten their power. If judges and juries are independent, then they can hold rulers accountable. If there is a genuinely free press, journalists can expose high-level theft and corruption. If the political system empowers citizens to influence the government, then citizens can eventually change the regime.
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This is the core of the problem: the leaders of Autocracy, Inc., know that the language of transparency, accountability, justice, and democracy will always appeal to some of their own citizens. To stay in power they must undermine those ideas wherever they are found.
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Critical thinkers, those who have paid attention to current affairs and US news over the years of the current and former president, will recognize patterns.
We also know two prominent autocrats of the 20th Century, Hitler and Mussolini. Hitler and Mussolini suffered ignominious demises. Today's dictators have learned some lessons from the mistakes of these two.
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Anne Applebaum's latest book, Autocracy, Inc. (first published July 23, 2024) enlightens interested readers in a very timely way in this US election season. From inside the front cover:
Today's autocracies, she shows, are supported by a web of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists who operate beyond their own borders. Corrupt companies in one country do business with corrupt companies in another. The police in one country can arm and train the police in another. The autocrats are rewriting the rules of world trade and governance as their propagandists pound home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America.
Looking back on Trump's administration and domination of the press (they are, of course, according to him, the enemy of the people). Orban suppresses freedom of the press too. Putin has robbed Russian (and Ukrainian) families of their young adult males (to serve as cannon fodder in Putin's expansionist fantasies as they, in reality, play out).
Anyway, I began reading Autocracy, Inc. today. It's not a long book. I expect to have more from it to share with readers of the Arizona Eagletarian soon. In the meantime, Applebaum has been giving talks about it. Several are on YouTube. Here's one. (just a few minutes)
Here's another if you have an hour to spend watching/listening to her talk about the book.
