The New Authoritarian Toolkit

An authoritarian wave is sweeping across the world. Authoritarian countries are becoming more authoritarian while liberal regimes are becoming less liberal. But the new autocrats aren’t using old-fashioned methods like military or executive coups to keep themselves in business. They are resorting to new and improved modern tools to subvert checks and balances on their power, escape accountability, and hollow out liberal democracies from the inside without fearing the terrible optics of calling in tanks or formally suspending their country’s constitution.