Autocracy, Inc, by Anne Applebaum
Review by Dave Gamrath
One-liner: In her short book Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, Anne Applebaum defines the scope of autocracies across the world today, their overarching goals, and explains their methods to obtain and keep power.
Book Review:
Donald Trump has stated that he plans to be “a dictator on day one” if reelected. What would that look like? To learn more, I picked up Anne Applebaum’s Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World. It was truly eye-opening to learn just how many autocracies exist throughout the world. Applebaum discusses dozens of them, including Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, and many others, as well as “illiberal democracies” such as Hungary, Turkey, and India. Today’s autocracies come in many flavors and can be ideologically different. But what they share is “a determination to deprive their citizens of any real influence or public voice, to push back against all forms of transparency or accountability, and to repress anyone, at home or abroad, who challenges them.” They are willing to do whatever it takes to stay in power, including destroying lives or even sending “hundreds of thousands of their citizens to their deaths.”
The leaders of Autocracy, Inc. oppose “the notion that the law is a neutral force, not subject to the whims of politics; that courts and judges should be independent; that political opposition is legitimate; that the rights to speech and assembly can be guaranteed; and that there can be independent journalists and writers and thinkers who are capable of being critical of the ruling party or leader while at the same time remaining loyal to the state.” To stay in power, autocracies must undermine democratic ideas, wherever they are found. A key point of Applebaum’s book is the interconnectivity between the autocracies, such as how they support each other’s corrupt practices, trade with each other to circumvent sanctions, and repeat each other’s propaganda themes, including “the degeneracy of democracy, the stability of autocracy, (and) the evil of America.” An example of autocracies supporting each other is the support Russia has been getting from Iran, China and North Korea in their war effort in Ukraine. More than just expanding Russian territory, Russia’s higher-level goal in Ukraine is “to create a new world order,” where autocracy is the norm, and democracy a forgotten thing of the past.
After the fall of the USSR, many democratic leaders believed that diplomacy and trade opportunities would push autocracies such as Russia and China toward democracy. Surprisingly, the opposite happened. Trade with the West has made autocracies stronger and emboldened them to push their totalitarianism onto the democratic world. Applebaum explains how they have done this.
Key among their tactics is controlling narratives, enabling autocracies to squash not just democratic actions, but more importantly, democratic ideas themselves. New technologies are greatly assisting with this, including artificial intelligence, security cameras, and voice/facial-recognition software. The goal is “to predict political resistance before it happens,” and to eliminate “the thinking that leads people to become democracy activists or attend public protests in real life.” They want to persuade citizens “to be cynical and passive because there is no better world to build.” Also, autocracies are working to exploit culture wars in democracies and to generate hatred, fear, and anger. Autocrats lie repeatedly and blatantly and don’t care if they are caught. Autocracies are establishing anti-democratic messaging organizations throughout the world to spread hopelessness and cynicism and to promote the most extreme voices. Additionally, autocracies are working hard to “remove the language of human rights and democracy from international institutions.”
Historically, democracy proponents could fight back with tactics that have been proven over the decades. But autocracies have also studied these tactics and have worked together to crush them. Applebaum shares many examples of autocratic counter-tactics, including personalized smear campaigns. Simply put, “smear campaigns work,” through repeated vilification of their pro-democracy adversaries. Technology is widely used in these efforts, with autocracies deploying thousands of fake social media accounts to attack their democratic enemies.
Arguably, the strongest driver of today’s autocrats is their pursuit of vast wealth. Applebaum calls this “the greed that binds.” Today’s autocracies eagerly work together to help each other get fabulously wealthy. “In this world, theft is rewarded. Taxes are not paid. Law enforcement is unimportant and underfunded. Regulation is something to be dodged.” Putin’s Russia represents a new model of “a full-blown autocratic kleptocracy, a mafia state built and managed entirely for the purpose of enriching its leaders,” expropriating the wealth of the Russian people. Ironically, the West helped Putin in these efforts. Applebaum describes “the role of the legitimate Western institutions, companies, lawyers, and politicians who enabled [Putin’s] schemes, profited from them, or covered them up.” And it’s not just in Russia. This “globalization of finance, the plethora of hiding places, and the benign tolerance that democracies have shown for foreign graft now give autocrats opportunities that few could have imagined a couple of decades ago.” Applebaum provides extensive examples of graft throughout autocracies, with their leaders fleecing their countries for billions, even hundreds of billions of dollars.
Would Donald Trump, with his plans to be “a dictator on day one” if reelected, use the power of the presidency to further enrich himself and his family? Applebaum doesn’t address this, but given Trump’s bold admiration of today’s autocrats, his obsession with his personal wealth, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that the president is above the law, one can only imagine the extent of U.S. taxpayer dollars that will end up in Trump family pockets.
Applebaum stresses that we can stop this trend toward autocracy only if we are willing to make a bold effort, and she provides us with a guide to action. We need “networks of lawyers and public officials to fight corruption inside our own countries and around the world, in cooperation with the democratic activists who understand kleptocracies best.” “We need military and intelligence coalitions that can anticipate and halt lawless violence.” “We need economic warriors” to help enforce sanctions. “We need people willing to organize online and coordinate campaigns to identify and debunk dehumanizing propaganda.” We need to end the system of Western entities assisting autocracies in moving and hiding their stolen wealth. We have to break “the autocrats’ monopoly on the use of strong emotions,” where they effectively channel “resentment, hatred, and the desire for superiority.”
To Applebaum’s list, I will add: we need to stop Trump from being reelected.
To sum up Applebaum’s book, “nobody’s democracy is safe.” Today’s “autocracies want to create a global system that benefits thieves, criminals, dictators, and the perpetrators of mass murder.” If the citizens of our world’s democracies work together, “we can stop them.” The question is, are we up for the task?
Reviewer Opinion: A concise, well-written book.
Reviewer Rating of Book: Thumb way up