Twilight of Democracy
Anne Applebaum
In her book, the Twilight of Democracy, Applebaum frames the global shift from Democracy to Authoritarianism as one based in a shift of societal belief. She argues that while in the past, a strong belief in democracy kept the liberal order running, today, as people’s belief slowly has shrunk, countries have begun to slide into authoritarianism. Interestingly, Applebaum believes that many important historical events that other authors have credited with the decline of democracy are actually not the driving cause behind this slide, but rather were simply the straw that broke the camel's back.
Recently, a wave of restorative nostalgia has overtaken the world. Because they are upset with their lives, people around the globe have begun to believe that they must revert their country back to the state that it was many years ago. Along with this, these people begin to blame democracy for taking them away from a better life, making them believe that democracy is bad.
There will always be those who wish to be authoritarian, and whether or not they are successful depends on if they can find supporters. Until recently, they have been unable to find these supporters but that is increasingly changing as people turn against the democratic system. For people who perceived a democratic meritocracy, meaning a system where the smartest people got jobs, as unfair, turning the system into an authoritarian one where loyalists were given power seemed better to them because they benefited from that. These people believed they deserved power, and so thought that any system that gave it to them was good.
Additionally, many of these people who turned to authoritarianism did so because of very personal reasons. For example, one person in Poland turned authoritarian due to his jealousy of his brother. Since he believed that he could get ahead of his brother in an authoritarian system, he tried to make the system authoritarian to get an advantage. This is a common pattern, as even if people still believe in democracy, they would often rather turn the system bad to give themselves power, even if it made other people suffer.
Today, it is uniquely easy for authoritarians to gain power because of how easy it is to spread misinformation. If one party wants to cheat and use unethical means to get public support, it is easier than ever to spread false information that helps their campaign using social media.
Overall, countries become authoritarian not because of one particularly effective leader, but because the system turns authoritarian. Eventually, the system reaches a breaking point, where enough people believe in authoritarianism to convert the country, which is not necessarily the majority, but instead a powerful minority. Parties often measure this point through a lie. This allows the authoritarian to test what they can get away with and shows who is loyal and who isn’t: if you support the lie, you’re loyal, while if you don’t, then the authoritarian can tell that you still support democracy to an extent.