Modern Authoritarianism

Authoritarianism doesn’t win because it’s strong.
It wins because too many people believe they’re powerless.

But here’s the truth: you are not powerless.
Democracy isn’t something we inherit. It’s something we do. And right now, doing it matters more than ever.

You don’t need to be famous, elected, or rich to fight back. You just need to be willing to act. Here’s how.

Authoritarianism can feel inevitable once it takes hold—like a tide you can’t fight. But history says otherwise.

Countries have fought back. They’ve overturned power grabs, rebuilt institutions, and reawakened civic trust. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t fast. But it was possible.

Today, we’re looking at places that clawed their way back from the brink—and what we can learn from their strategies.

Authoritarianism spreads when people give up—when institutions crumble, when watchdogs stay silent, when citizens look away. But that’s not the whole story.

Because even now, in the midst of a coordinated effort to concentrate power and dismantle democratic norms, some people, some systems, and some truths are holding the line.

Today’s post is about them—the remaining firewalls that are still doing their job, even as the pressure mounts.

Authoritarianism doesn’t emerge from a vacuum. It’s not chaos—it’s strategy.

Whether it’s Orbán in Hungary, Erdoğan in Turkey, Modi in India, or Trump in the United States, the pattern is shockingly consistent. These regimes don’t all look the same, but they follow a shared logic: consolidate power, suppress dissent, and make it harder for anyone to fight back.

Today we break down the authoritarian playbook—the seven core moves that appear again and again across countries, eras, and ideologies.

The United States doesn’t look like Hungary. Or Turkey. Or India.

We have a different history, a different constitution, and stronger institutions—at least, we used to.

But modern authoritarianism is adaptable. It doesn’t require tanks or crownings. It works within the system—until it breaks the system. And right now, the U.S. is no longer just flirting with these tactics. We’ve elected a leader who is actively using them.

This isn’t speculation. It’s happening.

Modern authoritarianism doesn’t rise in secret. It happens in plain sight.

Democracies across the globe have voted themselves into crisis—choosing strongmen who promise to restore pride, clean up corruption, or defend tradition. What follows is a pattern: leaders consolidate power, weaken oversight, attack critics, and change the rules to stay in control.

If it feels like what’s happening in the U.S. is unprecedented, it’s not. It’s familiar.
Today, we’re looking at three countries—Hungary, Turkey, and India—where democracies were dismantled not with a coup, but with applause.

You don’t wake up one morning to find yourself in a dictatorship. That’s the oldest myth in the book.

In the modern world, authoritarianism doesn’t kick down the front door. It slips in quietly—through elections, headlines, executive orders, and court decisions. It looks like patriotism. It sounds like law and order. And by the time people realize what’s happening, it can be too late.

This week, in our Modern Authoritarianism series, we’re breaking down the Authoritarian Playbook—how democracies around the world have been slowly hollowed out from the inside, and how those same moves are unfolding here in the United States.

But before we talk about what’s happening, we need to talk about how it happens.