<
https://theprogressnetwork.substack.com/p/aspiring-authoritarians-are-often>
"Longtime readers of this newsletter know that we’ve been on the democracy beat
for a while, highlighting cases such as Poland, Brazil, and most recently,
Hungary, as would-be authoritarians from Jair Bolsonaro to Viktor Orbán were
voted out of office.
These examples are good news in and of themselves, of course. But as a US-based
organization, we’re especially interested in them, because ... well, I don’t
think an explanation is really needed, but on the off chance that you’re
joining us fresh from a three-year Tibetan Buddhist retreat, please accept this
graph of America’s democracy indicators in lieu of one.
The US is far from the only nation struggling through an anti-democratic
period; the world as a whole is experiencing a wave of autocratization. So
while the Polish, Brazilian, and Hungarian outcomes were welcome and
motivating, they also seemed, at the time, like (happy) surprises. Absent an
understanding of what normally happens when a democratic nation is gripped by a
leader interested in autocratizing, we could all be forgiven for seeing them as
anomalies.
Turns out, though, they are the rule, not the exception."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
