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Enabling Authoritarian Strongmen

BI Article
Mapping the Authoritarian Populism "Conflict Complex," an Overview
An overview of six upcoming Frontiers Seminar posts that apply conflict mapping techniques to the authoritarian populism problem.

BI Article
Mapping the Continuum between Democracy and Authoritarianism
This post explains the nature and importance of the continuum that stretches from ideal democracy to authoritarian dystopia.

BI Article
The Crane Brinton Effect --- Why Revolutions Fail
Amid calls for a political revolution to fight systemic oppression, a critical look at why revolutions fail with contributions from the Burgesses, Peter Adler, James Adams, William Donohue, and Mark Hamilton.

News and Opinion
Authoritarianism is surging. Can liberal democracy fight back?

News and Opinion
Both Left and Right Are Converging on Authoritarianism
A different and thought-provoking argument that hyper-polarization isn't the big problem. Rather it's a symptom of a bigger problem -- illiberalism on both the left and the right.

News and Opinion
Authoritarian Rule Challenging Democracy as Dominant Global Model

BI Article
Red, Blue, Gold Interactions, Destructive Polarization and the Peacebuilding Imperative
An explanation of the critical distinction between left vs. right conflicts and authoritarians vs. everyone else conflicts.

BI Article
Understanding Democratic Erosion: A Lowy Institute/Toda Peace Institute Collaborative Project
A conflict map of democratic erosion shows how complex this problem is, and why a simple, us-versus-them definition of the problem, along with an attempt to overpower "them," cannot work to solve it.

News and Opinion
Is public sentiment shifting toward support of authoritarianism? Not really.

BI Article
Kevin Clements' "Authoritarian Populism and Atavistic Nationalism: 21st Century Challenges to Peacebuilding and Development"
Are liberal, democratic capitalist states operating under the rule of law capable of meeting the economic, welfare, and identity needs of citizens in the 21st century? If not, what can?

Colleague Activities
Authoritarianism: How you Know it When You See It
The purpose of this document is to help US organizers, bridge-builders, and others understand the key attributes of authoritarian systems, how authoritarians wield power, and ways to counter it.

News and Opinion
What's New About the New Authoritarianism?

News and Opinion
How Hitler's Enablers Undid Democracy in Germany
An article to help us fill in a critically important gap in our understanding of what, exactly, allowed the Nazis to come to power. We need to understand this history to avoid repeating it.

News and Opinion
All the Little Caesars
A primer on what everybody ought to know about the incendiary, divide-and-conquer politics used by established (and aspiring) authoritarians.

News and Opinion
Leaders of democracies increasingly echo Putin in authoritarian tilt

News and Opinion
I Watched a Democracy Die. I Don't Want to Do It Again.
From Chile, a retrospective and agonizing account of what happens when democracies do, in fact, fail and authoritarians take over.

News and Opinion
How Experts Overlooked Left-Wing Authoritarianism
A look at how political biases have distorted psychological research in ways that have underestimated the level of left-wing support for authoritarians.

News and Opinion
America's Pro-Authoritarian Theorists

News and Opinion
How to Live With Authoritarians

News and Opinion
New technologies, new totalitarians
An examination of the ways in which new technologies may be opening the door to a new kind of 21st-century totalitarianism.

News and Opinion
China's Artificial Intelligence Surveillance State Goes Global
As we struggle with past injustices, we must also fight the injustices of the future. Chinese-style authoritarianism could easily come here.

News and Opinion
Christine Brophy: Narcissism Behind Left-Wing Authoritarianism

News and Opinion
Authoritarianism Here?

News and Opinion
The Omnipotence of China's Xi Jinping
An in-depth profile of Xi Jinping with important insights into the threat posed by 21st-century authoritarianism.

News and Opinion
Seeking Authority Rather Than Authoritarians
From Francis Fukuyama, an exploration of the complex relationship between the ability to act decisively and with authority and the struggle against authoritarianism.

News and Opinion
Putin Has Assembled an Axis of Autocrats Against Ukraine
A reminder that, even in a multi-polar world, coalition building dynamics can lead to dangerous polarization and, conceivably, a major confrontation between the authoritarianism and democracy.

News and Opinion
Laboratories of Authoritarianism

News and Opinion
How the Russian Government Silences Wartime Dissent
A look into what Russia is doing to suppress opposition to its war in Ukraine and a window into how brutal, authoritarian regimes can make it impossible to effectively challenge folly and corruption.

News and Opinion
The Long Arm of Authoritarianism

News and Opinion
The Russian Mutiny and the Inherent Instability of Autocracies
Important reminders about the limits and instability of autocratic power

News and Opinion
Why Authoritarians Like Saddam Hussein Confound U.S. Presidents
Based in part on detailed recordings now available of Saddam Hussein's decision-making process --- a look at why the United States has so much trouble dealing with dictators.

News and Opinion
Eco-Authoritarianism

News and Opinion
Facebook Is an Authoritarian State

News and Opinion
What Makes Putin and the World's Autocrats So Resilient?
As we think about ways of building a more resilient democracy, it's worth paying attention to what makes autocracy resilient and why it's so important that we let it get established.

News and Opinion
Kathleen Stock won't be the last -- A new age of authoritarianism has only just begun

News and Opinion
Xi Jinping Has Fallen Into the Dictator Trap
While there is plenty of reason to fear the rise of authoritarian leaders like Xi and Putin, there is also reason to believe that they may be sowing the seeds of their own (and their country's) destruction.