#Autocracy Inc.

[tomorrowusa]

« All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of an autocratic state. There is a bad man at the top. He controls the army and the police. The army and the police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents. But in the twenty-first century, that cartoon bears little resemblance to reality.

Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy but by sophisticated networks relying on kleptocratic financial structures, a complex of security services— military, paramilitary, police—and technological experts who provide surveillance, propaganda, and disinformation. The members of these networks are connected not only to one another within a given autocracy but also to networks in other autocratic countries, and sometimes in democracies too. Corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another. The police in one country may arm, equip, and train the police in many others. The propagandists share resources—the troll farms and media networks that promote one dictator’s propaganda can also be used to promote another’s—as well as themes: the degeneracy of democracy, the stability of autocracy, the evil of America. »

– Journalist and historian Anne Applebaum at Substack quoting from her soon to be released book Autocracy, Inc..

You can read several more paragraphs from Autocracy, Inc. at the Substack link above. Her book will be published on the 23rd; if you're within distance of Washington, DC she will be doing a free book reading and Q&A on Friday July 26th at Politics and Prose. She's a good writer and speaker. I've read two of her previous books and can vouch for their quality.

The war in Ukraine is not some remote conflict that idiots like J.D. Vance or Neville Chamberlain might dismiss out of stupidity. Ukraine is just one arena in a worldwide clash between liberal democracy and kleptocratic tyranny.

[garudabluffs]

Regimes Around the World Are Starting to TEAM UP (w/ Anne Applebaum) | Shield of the Republic

Anne's new book Autocracy Inc: The Dictators who Want to Run the World.`

Oct 6, 2024 Shield of the Republic Podcast Eric and Eliot welcome back Anne Applebaum, Pultizer and Duff Cooper Prize Winning author of Gulag and Red Famine and currently staff writer with The Atlantic and senior fellow at the Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. They discuss Anne's new book Autocracy Inc: The Dictators who Want to Run the World. They examine the threat that autocratic regimes represent to their own citizens at home and to liberal democracy abroad, the West's slowness to recognize the threat that the authoritarians represent, the excessive optimism that (after the end of the Cold War and with the advent of globalization) liberal democratic ideals would triumph without recognizing the danger that authoritarian, illiberal ideas might flow into democracies, whether or not the authoritarians think they are winning and how they measure success, Russia's role in prompting much of the authoritarian offensive and the role of western institutions in facilitating the emergence of Russia as a personalist, authoritarian mafia state, the weaknesses of the authoritarians and how the western democracies might go on the offensive against the political warfare being waged daily by the authoritarians against the democracies, and the effort to obliterate truth and promote hopelessness and cynicism in citizens in democracies and setting them against one another. Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World: https://a.co/d/ifaCL3E Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

1,831 Comments

The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, with Anne Applebaum (Part 1)

Intelligence Squared

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1,831 Comments

[meteorologistaustenlonek]

"What the autocrats — whether they're in American politics or in Russian politics or in Chinese politics — what they want is for you to be disengaged. They want you to drop out," she says. "I want people to be convinced that ideas matter, that we're going to have to defend and protect our political system if we want to keep it."

"Constant lies also create this kind of cynicism and apathy. It's a way of keeping people out of politics and preventing civic engagement. I mean, a lot of these authoritarian states know that … [the] biggest threat to their power is their own people. And so their goal is to prevent people from ever organizing, from ever being engaged, from ever caring at all. And one of the ways they do that is through this constant stream of lies that make people feel like they're simply unable to know anymore what's true and what's not." - NPR

[kitty-lemon]

WTF IS GOING ON???!!!! IS THIS IT FOR US?? WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NOW??

Man I hope this doesn't go through. Such a fucking dark day for our democracy....Never thought that we would be a country where the leader of the biggest opposition just got arrested like that....Ab kya?? Emergency? oou they fucked up bad..

THAT FUCKING AUTOCRAT M0D1 AND HIS P@RTY NEED TO GO AWAY AND NVER BE SEEN EVER AGAIN IDC I HAVE NO SYMPATHY

[lenbryant]

Yes. The answer is "Yes." We are sleepwalking into autocracy. However, more than half of us weren't asleep at all and were yelling about it at the top of our lungs. At least we'll have free gas and cheap eggs in our Brave New World.

[jiff01]

[mariacallous]

[reading-writing-revolution]

One of the voices in the film is Anne Applebaum, a journalist and historian, who’s an essential guides to this present moment. Her latest book, Autocracy Inc, lays out comprehensively but simply how networked autocracies and countries with autocratic features are with one another. These are political and financial technological alliances that link Russia to China to Venezuela to Iran. Anne’s point is that the bad guys are helping each other out all the time in all sorts of ways. And we’re watching a new US-UK axis being built in real time between Farage and Musk. Wendy Siegelman, a brilliant open-source investigator who had a career in corporate finance before becoming a one-woman kleptocracy exposure machine and who has been a hugely valuable resource and ally helping with my investigations over the years, posted this week about a disturbing new company she’d found.

ChatGPT v The Guardian - by Carole Cadwalladr - The Power

[protoslacker]

Autocracy, Inc: Anne Applebaum and Ruth Ben-Ghiat in Conversation

The 92nd Street Y, New York

An important conversation from July.

Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum

[gwen-tolios]

Recommended January Reading

A reminder that reading is political and powerful.

Pick up a book to learn, buy a book to support your community, and donate a book to the neighborhood (or suggest it for your bookclub) that might shift someone's opinion.

Books For Self-Education:

How Fascism Works by Jason Stanley

Autocracy, Inc by Anne Applebaum

Book by Indie Queer Authors

Transverse by Jamie Winters

Tears in the Water by Margherita Scialla

Written With Pride edited by Fable Tethras, Viveca Shearin, & Claudine Griggs

Or a gazillion other queer books

Books To Subtle Encourage Your Neighbors to Read

The Children of Men by PD James

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Firebreak by Nicole Korhner-Stace

Any others you can think of, but famous books or subtle books work best for this category I've noticed

Feel free to build the list!

[tomorrowusa]

Anne Applebaum's book Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World was published a few days ago. in the book she describes the basic nature of contemporary autocracies and how they cooperate with each other.

About two-thirds of the way through this NPR audio she pivots from overseas autocracies to talk about how disinformation and outright lies are undermining democracy in the US.

The transcript for the audio can be found here.

A few bits from the transcript:

You know, for a long time, certainly since the end of the Cold War gave us this feeling that our political system was the best and it was inevitably the best, we took for granted the idea that somehow, you know, information was like - was another free market. And there would be a competition in the market between good ideas and bad ideas, and eventually the good ideas would win. That's actually not how it works. And that's not how the news business works anymore. It's not how information works. And understanding how important it is and how important it is to engage in it, both in our country and around the world, I think would do us a lot of good. I mean, we - you know, we sort of stopped competing or - again, out of complacency, out of the assumption that everybody would eventually agree with us, we didn't really have to do anything. We didn't have to try very hard. I think we misunderstood that. [ ... ] I want people to be convinced that ideas matter, that we're going to have to defend and protect our political system if we want to keep it. We have to do that around the world, but we also have to do it in our own country. So much of what I suggest is to do with changing the way things are done in the United States. And much of it is also to do with people becoming engaged in public life, in understanding what's happening, and not just voting, but participating. With autocrats, whether they're in American politics or in Russian politics or in Chinese politics, what they want is for you to be disengaged. They want you to drop out. They want you to become overwhelmed, and they want you to, you know, to say, I can't do anything. It's all hopeless. So it's very important to remember that our ideas are better. And our system is better, and however flawed it may be - and I'm sure you could do another whole radio program about the flaws of the United States and our democracy - it's still better than the autocratic world. And I should also say, it's still the case that our ideas are the ones that people in the autocratic world wish they had. The people who are really the most eloquent spokesmen for freedom of speech aren't the kind of free speech warriors in America. They're Russians who don't have it. And the people who are the greatest advocates for transparency in the rule of law are also people who live in states where they don't have it. And remembering that these are things that we have that they're under threat, and they need to be protected and defended, I think is extremely important.

We fight autocracy by being engaged and by challenging disinformation.

The book is brand new. Here's a link to the publisher's site for Autocracy, Inc.. Take note of the title and author's name and then buy it at a local independent bookstore. 😉

Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

@npr

[stephanpolitical]

'Autocracy, Inc.' review: Democracies, dictators battle for the new world order : NPR

[warningsine]

As Turkey approaches presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is fighting an uphill battle for survival. He is behind in the polls, which can be attributed to three main reasons.

First, Erdogan can no longer rely on his autocratic bargain predicated on delivering economic growth and upward mobility in return for political support or quiescence. This served him well during most of his 20 years in power but now is irreparably broken.

His stubborn and uninformed monetary policy has left the economy fragile and suffering from high inflation. A major erosion of purchasing power generating growing poverty and income disparity ensued in the last couple of years. But the bad news for Erdogan does not end with the economy. 

Second, and perhaps most important, a traditionally weak and divided opposition is now united against him. An eclectic coalition of six parties, boosted with the support of a kingmaker Kurdish political movement, stands firmly behind Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the social-democratic Republican People’s Party and the candidate of what is known as the Nation Alliance. 

Kilicdaroglu is ahead of Erdogan in the polls, but his margin is slim. 

Finally, a third factor also works against Erdogan: the massive earthquake that shook Turkey on February 6 and killed more than 50,000 people. The disaster blatantly exposed the inefficiency and institutional decay under Erdogan’s one-man rule.

To the massive frustration of millions affected, the state was quasi-absent in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Under the corrupt management of incompetent cronies, governmental agencies not only failed in search and rescue efforts but also mismanaged post-disaster relief. 

Under normal circumstances these factors should translate into a major defeat for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Yet elections are no longer free and fair in Erdogan’s Turkey. The government controls most of the media and the judicial system.

In the absence of a strong margin of victory for the opposition, Erdogan may refuse to concede and take the result to the courts or worse – to the streets.

Lacking charisma and oratory skills but with a strong reputation for integrity, Kilicdaroglu, 74, is the architect of the opposition’s newly acquired unity. But he has a losing streak against Erdogan. 

In a two-round presidential election system that is bound to be tightly contested, whether Kilicdaroglu can win in the first round with more than 50% of the vote will end up depending on an unknown: the resurgent candidacy of Muharrem Ince, who has emerged as a populist disrupter, to the delight of Erdogan. Ince, who polls between 5% and 7%, attracts younger voters unhappy with both the AKP and the opposition. 

Given the stakes, the whole country is on edge. A large part of the population is ready for change. But the same societal segment is anxious and incredulous about the prospect of Erdogan losing power.

Aura of invincibility

Like many observers in the West who lack confidence in Turkey’s democratic maturity, many in Turkey find it hard to believe that Erdogan will quietly disappear after losing an election. This brings us to a critically important yet often misunderstood dimension of the drama about to unfold in Turkey: Erdogan’s biggest advantage is his aura of political invincibility.  

There seems to be a fatalistic resignation that Erdogan will find a way to stay in power and that a peaceful transition will prove elusive. The same alarmism sees this election as the last chance before Turkey slides into dictatorship.

Such apprehension may serve to galvanize the opposition. But it is misplaced and ignores reality. Erdogan is not as strong as he seems and Turkey is not an autocracy like Russia or China where polls are cosmetic.

Despite the illiberal nature of strongman rule, elections will continue to matter if Turkish people are not intimidated by Erdogan. Even if he manages to win, the people and the opposition should remain vigilant, make sure the result is not manipulated before conceding, and prepare for the next fight instead of losing hope and faith in elections.

Turkish democracy will outlast Erdogan even if he scores a pyrrhic short-term victory. He is bound to lose even if he wins. 

Finally, let’s not forget that Erdogan lost local elections in all major cities in 2019 when the opposition was united and received Kurdish support. In Istanbul, a 16-million-strong megapolis and a microcosm of Turkey, Erdogan refused the result after a very narrow loss and bullied his way to a rerun.  

He lost in a landslide.

And all this was before the economic meltdown and the hyperinflation of the last two years. Behind the facade of his massive presidential palace, Erdogan is a lonely man, detached from reality, and surrounded by sycophants.

Yes, he has gained a well-deserved reputation as a Machiavellian survivor after 20 years in power. But centralization of decision-making, personalization of authority, and the hollowing out of state institutions have not made him stronger. 

Instead, Turkey’s strongman is now at his weakest. If Erdogan wins on May 14, it will not be because of his capacity to govern or his populist policies raising the minimum wage or lowering the retirement age. It will be because too many Turks still believe he is invincible.

[vollesroah]

See also Autocracy Inc.

Not a paid post.

[mariacallous]

Anne Applebaum’s new book explaining the rise of ‘modern autocracy’ through the politics of patronage, fear and misinformation will strike a familiar chord with observers of the political landscape in the Balkans.

Anne Applebaum’s timely book Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World explains the rise of modern autocracy in terms of simple greed and shamelessness. It details the shift away from dictators even pretending to uphold the values that characterised the post-World War II international order – and the collaborative efforts being made to undermine these institutions and replace them with transactionalism and their own control.

Applebaum explains how façades of democracy have been successfully manipulated by those who seek to undermine it as a system. Discussing the “shock therapy” approach taken to economic transition, which planted the seeds for many of these elements in the former Soviet space, she notes the role of Western companies and shell companies, banks and financial institutions. These greased the wheels for kleptocractic superstructures while getting rich and enabling widening inequality.

One chapter criticises the role of media, social media and the technologies and algorithms that enable the erosion of trust with the rapid dissemination of mis- and disinformation. She also sketches out how autocrats are learning from one another in a manner that in many ways is more efficient and effective than anything being seen on the other side.

For anyone living in and observing the political dynamics in the former Yugoslavia, everything outlined in her book seems extremely familiar and tangible.

The nexus of politics and power, and the predominant role of fear, misinformation and patronage in driving governance, rather than electoral and institutional accountability, has been the core feature of the domestic and international cycles of dysfunction in this region for over a generation.

I could not help but link her description of Austrian and West German gas and steel industrialists meeting with Soviet counterparts in 1967, with the transactionalism we see today between German and broader EU interests in making deals on lithium in an increasingly autocratic Serbia.  

In some ways, today’s reality is worse; in 1967 there was no pretence of democratic process; today this and other deals are being made in spite of a lack of informed community consent or institutional good governance.

It would be hard to imagine a more illustrative sign of the potential for further Balkan-American oligarchy than the recently announced deals by Donald Trump’s son-in-law and daughter to develop luxury hotels in Serbia and Albania, or the recent forays into North Macedonia by Trump allies.

One issue that Applebaum grapples with is the hopeful naïveté, or willing ignorance, of so many decision-makers at the end of the Cold War, convincing themselves that free market capitalism and rules- and rights-based democracy would, and even must go, hand-in-hand.

The late Benjamin Barber, a political theorist, in 1992, and later in his 1996 book, saw the writing on the wall in terms of the toxic mix of media conglomerates, popular anger, economic precarity and inequality together enabling the rise of anti-democratic extremisms of all flavours.

Throughout the Western Balkans, I’ve come across many people who have had the feeling that engagement in the former Yugoslavia was always more about capitalism than democracy.

As people have failed to see their lives get substantially better, and as they’ve seen deals being made between supposed Western democrats and known regional anti-democrats, they are increasingly skeptical of motives, words, promises and intentions. They have seen a local branch of “Autocracy, Inc” become firmly established in their own neighbourhood.

I was eager to hear Applebaum’s prescriptions, and in the epilogue she suggests a number of steps to be taken globally and perhaps most importantly in the West itself: adopting legislation to require transparency in the registration of business and real estate; reducing the scope for abuse by shell companies and tax havens; tackling misinformation, including by changing the balance of social media, so users own their data; and decoupling and de-risking business ties, including in the energy sphere, among others.

Many of these are in line with efforts over the years by the US, the EU and others to build democratic institutions in the Western Balkans and beyond. However, these have mostly failed because they tinker technically around the edges while avoiding the political life support systems at the core.

When talking about political reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example, I have lost track of how many times I’ve heard Western diplomats show they have little belief in the possibility for meaningful structural change, noting that “turkeys don’t vote for Thanksgiving”, so acknowledging that the politicians in the country have little interest in changing a system that suits them.

This self-interested scepticism is also evident in consolidated democracies; witness the lack of Congressional support for – or public awareness of – the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act in the US, for example.

No ‘Cold War 2.0’

Applebaum writes that in terms of resisting the increasingly coordinated and coordinating autocrats, the challenge is not a “black-and-white, binary contest, a ‘Cold War 2.0’”. Through this framing, she highlights the nuances among various types of autocrats, as well as the fluid transactional pragmatism among those seeking to amass and keep wealth and the power that comes with it.

She suggests one difference is that there are no “blocs” to join, or clear geographical boundaries, somewhat downplaying the emergence of BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and other constructs.

I wish she would have engaged more with the clarion call made by Oliver Bullough in his 2022 Offshore Cold War: Forging a Democratic Alliance to Combat Transnational Kleptocracy. Bullough, describing many of the same facilitating systems, mechanisms and structures in the West that have enabled the growth of oligarchy and kleptocracy, calls for the same unified and concerted effort against this democratic threat today that was seen during the Cold War.

On this, Applebaum would agree – she closes by calling on democrats to unite as effectively and confidently as the autocrats have done in establishing their own connectivity models.

Western diplomats engaging in the Western Balkans today – and often hailing or even facilitating kleptocratic business dealmaking – would do well to read her book.

They could then recognise the signs that we’ve seen in the region for years, and the potential allies among citizens in the region who know the playbook all too well – and wonder why the West still has not learned.