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Authoritarian(ism/s), autocra(cy/ts)

Thursday 2nd of October 2025

Authoritarianism Ain't nothing as agile as authoritarian regimes. Jon Stewart, Financial Times, October 28, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism As he [Trump] put it in his speech accepting the Republican nomination in 2016, "I alone can fix it." At the heart of authoritarianism is this notion of indispensability. The leader is unique, unparalled, irreplaceable. God has chose him to rescue and revive the nation. That is why he cannot be constrained by law or even by the ordinary calculations of rationality. Only in his infallible instincts and indominable will does salvation lie. … The valorization of the lone savior suits reactionary politics — it is not a good fit for democracy. Fintan O'Toole, New York Review of Books, August 15, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism Authoritarian forces only succeed when they are tolerated and protected by mainstream politicians. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Tyranny of the Minority  © 2023 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism Building on [Juan] Linz's work [in The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes ], we have developed a set of four behavioral warning signs that can help us know an authoritarian when we see one. We should worry when a politician 1) rejects, in words or action, the democratic rules of the game, 2) denies the legitimacy of opponents, 3) tolerates or encourages violence, and 4) indicates a willingness to curtail the civil liberties of opponents, including the media. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism But should a bank fail to meet even a single withdrawal demand, confidence in it is at once shattered, and depositors rush to reclaim their funds. The result is a bank run which forces the bank to suspend payments. An authoritarian state similarly succeeds in exacting universal obedience not because it has the forces required to meet all the possible challenges, but because it has enough of them to meet any anticipated ones. Failing to move decisively, producing a loss of prestige, invites multiple challenges and results in a kind of political bank run known as revolution. Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Old Regime © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism Despotism hunts in packs. John Keane, The New Despotism © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism Despotisms are top-down pyramids of power that defy political gravity by nurturing the willing subservience and docility of their subjects. John Keane, The New Despotism © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism Dictatorship is a branding exercise. The Apprentice  conditioned Americans to accept fraud as entertainment. Sarah Kendzior © 2020 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism Durable despotisms are systems of voluntary servitude. As Thomas Paine long ago spotted, despotisms turn their subjects into carriers of despotic ideas, ways of speech, and other symbolic practices that serve to lubricate the machinery of arbitrary power. John Keane, The New Despotism © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism The fascist movements of [the 1930s] prided themselves on being overtly antidemocratic, and those that came to power in Italy and Germany boasted that their regimes were totalitarian. The most original revelation of the current wave of authoritarians is that the construction of overtly antidemocratic dictatorships aspiring to totalitarianism is unnecessary for holding power. Perhaps the most apt designation of this new authoritarianism is the insidious term “illiberal democracy.” Christopher R. Browning, “The Suffocation of Democracy” © 2018 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism  Fear is what often drives authoritarianism. Fear of losing political power and, perhaps more important, fear of losing one's dominant status in society, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Tyranny of the Minority  © 2023 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism In fact, strongmen do not vanish with their exit from power, but instead remain as traces within the body of their people. The muscle memory to salute and sing the songs can be hard to shake, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism It is a frame of mind, not a set of ideas. Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy © 2021 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism The main handicap of authoritarian regimes in the 20th century – the desire to concentrate all information and power in one place – may become their decisive advantage in the 21st century. Yuval Harari, The Atlantic, October 2018 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism A new species of top-down rule marked by recombinant qualities, these despotisms are systems of state-regulated capitalism in which wide gaps between rich and poor are bridged by top-to-bottom patron-client connections, middle class loyalty, staged elections, and a great deal of officially sanctioned talk of the people as the veritable source of political order. John Keane, The New Despotism © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism A number of elements contribute to authoritarian predispositions in lower-class individuals. Low education, low participation in political or voluntary organizations of any type, little reading, isolated occupations, economic insecurity, and authoritarian family patterns are some of the most important. These elements are interrelated, but they are by no means identical. Seymour Martin Lipset, Political Man © 2021 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Putin in Russia, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, and Viktor Orbán in Hungary have all discovered that opposition parties can be left in existence and elections can be held in order to provide a fig leaf of democratic legitimacy, while in reality elections pose  scant challenge to their power. Truly dangerous opposition leaders are neutralzied or eliminated one way or another. Christopher R. Browning, “The Suffocation of Democracy” © 2018 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism The slave licenses the master. More than that: the slave likes or perhaps even loves the master. The dynamic is one in which the prey prevaricates and then yields to the predator. Despotism is a form of power that transforms subjects into willing instruments of rulers. … Subjects are the proximate cause of their own subjection. Servitude is chosen. People do not lose their liberty; rather, they win their enslavement. John Keane, The New Despotism © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism Smart despots are interested in smart power. John Keane, The New Despotism © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism The story of the last two decades is not just one of democratic weaknesses; it is also one of authoritarian strength. Yascha Mounk, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism The strongman's project of national greatness  is the glue of his government. It justifies his claims of absolute power and his narratives of risking everything to save the nation from domestic crisis and hostilities by foreigners. … Strongman national projects generally leverage three time frames and states of mind: utopia, nostalgia, and crisis. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism They are imprisoning one person to frighten millions. Alexei Navalny, on being sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for missing penal meetings in Russia because he was recuperating in Germany after being poisoned by Putin © 2021 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism This is the banality of authoritarianism. Many of the politicians who preside over a democracy's collapse are just ambitious careerists trying to stay in office or perhaps win a higher one. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Tyranny of the Minority  © 2023 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism To understand how elected autocrats subtly undermine institutions, it's helpful to imagine a soccer game. To consolidate power, would-be authoritarians must capture the referees, sideline at least at least some of the other side's star players, and rewrite the rules of the game to lock in their advantage, in effect tilting the playing field against their opponent. … Because these measures are carried out piecemeal and with the appearance of legality, the drift into authoritarianism doesn't always set off fire alarms. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism When faced with a would-be authoritarian, established politicians must unambiguously reject him or her and do everything possible to defend demo- cratic institutions—even if that means temporarily joining with bitter rivals. For Republicans entering the general election of 2016, the implications were clear. If Trump threatened basic demo- cratic principles, they had to stop him. To do anything else would put democracy at risk, and losing democracy is far worse than losing an election. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism While liberal countries tend to be liberal in much the same way, there are flavours of autocracy, and they pair badly. The ethnic chauvinist hates the universal Marxist. The cleric hates the colonel. Two theocracies of different denominations hate each other. “Axis” was a kind word for a group of second world war belligerents — Germany, Italy and Japan — that rarely viewed each other as racial or civilisational equals. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, August 24, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism With the exception of Richard Nixon, no major presidential candidate met even one of these four criteria over the last century. … Donald Trump met them all. No other major presidential candidate in modern U.S. history, including Nixon, has demonstrated such a weak public commitment to constitutional rights and democratic norms. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Autocracy Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services (military, police, paramilitary groups, surveillance), and professional propagandists. The members of these networks are connected not only in a given country, but among many countries. The corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another. The police in one country can arm, equip, and train the police in another. The propagandists share resources — the troll farms that promote one dictator's propaganda can also be used to promote the propaganda of another — and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America. Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, December 2021 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Autocrats say Better the lie that keeps the peace than the truth that disrupts. Sa'di of Shiraz, The Gulistan (Rose Garden) of Sa'di © 2022 Kwiple.com
Autocrats say For my friends, everything. For my enemies, the law. Óscar Raymundo Benevides, Peruvian dictator, 1933-1939  © 2023 Kwiple.com
Autocrats say War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four © 2023 Kwiple.com
Democracy vs. autocracy In democracies  certainty about procedures is combined with uncertainty about substantive outcomes; in autocracies certainty about substantive results goes with uncertainty about the procedures. Jan-Werner Müller, Democracy Rules © 2021 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats Donald Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations. … Much of the planning for a second term has been unofficially outsourced to a partnership of right-wing think tanks in Washington. Dubbed ”Project 2025,” … Project 2025 comprises 75 groups in a collab- oration organized by the Heritage Foundation. Washinton Post, November 5, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats Former President Trump's allies are pre- screening the ideologies of thousands of potential foot soldiers, as part of an unprecedented operation to centralize and expand his power at every level of the U.S. government if he wins in 2024, officials involved in the effort tell Axios. … Hundreds of people are spending tens of millions of dollars to install a pre-vetted, pro- Trump army of up to 54,000 loyalists across  government to rip off the restraints imposed on previous presidents. The screening for ready- to-serve loyalists has already begun, driven in part by artificial intelligence from tech giant Oracle, contracted for the project. Axios, November 12, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats On January 1 [2021], the Defendant [Donald Trump] called the Vice President [Pence] and berated him because he had learned that the Vice President had opposed a lawsuit seeking a judicial decision that, at the certification, the Vice President had the authority to reject or return votes to the states under the Constitution. The Vice President responded that he thought there was no constitutional basis  for such authority and that it was improper. In response, the Defendant told the Vice President, “You're too honest.” United States of America v. Donald J. Trump © 2023 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats The president, Barr argued, has “complete authority to start or stop” investigations and can “give direction” on individual cases, including those that touch on his political or financial interests. “The Constitution itself places no limit on the president's authority to act on matters which concern him or his own conduct,” Barr wrote. Law enforcement, he argued, was a power exclusively held by the president, because “he alone is the executive branch.” Mattathias Schwarta, New York Times Magazine, June 7, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats That is not normal. That is not OK. First of all, he's just making stuff up. But, most importantly, the president of the United States is calling for the imprisonment of a private citizen, as he's done for a whole lot of people  who criticize him. That is not acceptable in this country. The president doesn't get to decide who goes to jail. James Comey, on Trump's call to imprison him for allegedly leaking classified information and lying to Congress © 2018 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say Because then you won't give me what I want. Donald Trump, responding to Chuck Schumer, who asked him why he didn't just reopen the government and negotiate border policy as part of a separate bill  © 2019 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say He [Kim Jong-un] speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.  Donald Trump © 2018 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say He's now President for life. President for life. No, he's great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll give that a shot some day. Donald Trump, on China's President Xi Jinping getting its parliament to abolish its constitutional presidential term limits, to applause and cheers from attendees at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago © 2018 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say I could have done it. Donald Trump claiming he could have locked up Hillary Clinton after winning in 2016 without a trial, a conviction or sentencing © 2024 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say I do it to discredit you all, and demean you all, so that when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you. Donald Trump, answering Lesley Stahl, who asked him why he kept attacking the press © 2018 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say I have an Article II where I have the right to do whatever I want as president. But I don't even talk about that. Donald Trump © 2019 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say I have the absolute right to PARDON myself Donald Trump, 5:35 AM – 4 Jun 2018 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say I just want to find 11,780 votes. Donald Trump, pressuring Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secratary of state, to overturn his loss to Joe Biden by 11,779 votes in Georgia in 2020 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say I know all of them. I don't know if they're sitting like you people are sitting. You're actually sitting too close. We should probably get rid of another 75, 80 percent of you. I'll have just 2 or 3 that I like in this room. Donald Trump, to the smaller-then-usual-number of reporters maintaining social distancing at his COVID-19 coronovirus briefings in the press briefing room © 2020 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say I'll be the oversight. Donald Trump, volunteering to provide the oversight not called for in the proposed Republican stimulus package to combat coronavirus, which includes a $500 billion “corporate rescue fund” that his administration could dispense in secret to companies they deem worthy, like Trump International Hotels Management LLC in the hard-hit travel and leisure sector © 2020 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say I said I want to be a dictator for one day. You know why I wanted to be a dictator? Because I want a wall, and I want to drill, drill, drill. Donald Trump, doubling down on wanting to be a dictator © 2023 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say I think the bigger problem [than undocumened immigrants] We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the — and it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen. Donald Trump © 2024 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say I WILL APPOINT A REAL SPECIAL “PROSECUTOR” TO GO AFTER THE MOST CORRUPT PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE USA, JOE BIDEN, THE ENTIRE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY, & ALL OTHERS INVOLVED WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR ELECTIONS, BORDERS & COUNTRY ITSELF! Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump, Jun 16, 2023, 1:27 PM © 2023 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say If I renounce my beliefs, if I agree to stay silent, if I stayed at home and just took it easy, the persecution of Donald Trump would stop immediately, it would stop. But that's not what I will do. I can't do that. [Applause] A much simpler life. I have to save our country. Donald Trump, July 26, 2022, at America First Agenda Summit © 2022 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say  If I say do it, they're going do it. Donald Trump, when asked what he would do if the US military refused to follow the [illegal] order he vowed to issue to kill ISIS family members in reprisal for attacks © 2018 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say It's a disgrace. It's frankly a real disgrace. It's an attack on our country in a true sense. Donald Trump, conflating law enforcement – executing a search warrant for records pertaining to fraud and campaign finance violations by his lawyer, Michael Cohen – with an attack on the country © 2018 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say It's nice to have a strongman running your country. Donald Trump, January 20, 2024  © 2024 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. congressmen From notes taken by Richard P. Donoghue, Acting United States Deputy Attorney General, during a December 27, 2020, meeting in which Trump pressured Jeffrey A. Rosen, Acting United States Attorney General, to have the Department of Justice overturn the election on the basis of claims of widespread voter fraud, for which it could find no evidence © 2021 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say The mentally deranged people, Jack Smith should be considered mentally deranged and he should be thrown out of the country. Donald Trump © 2024 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say The one that matters is me. I'm the only one that matters. Because when it comes [to] it, that's what the policy is going to be. Donald Trump, when asked about his administration's failure to staff the State Department with people having expertise in foreign countries © 2017 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say Only the last is run on democratic, not autocratic, principles. Yet who would choose the last as the superior institution? Pat Buchanan, comparing the Marine Corps and corporations like IBM to the federal government  © 2022 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say The people won't stand for it. Donald Trump, on what will happen if special counsel Robert Mueller's report makes him look bad © 2019 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say The saddest thing is that because I'm the President of the United States, I am not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department. I am not supposed to be involved with the FBI. … I am not supposed to be doing the kind of things that I would love to be doing. And I am very frustrated by it. Donald Trump © 2018 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION?  A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump, Dec 03, 2022, 7:44 AM © 2022 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say Stick with us. Don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. Donald Trump, telling veterans he and his kiss-asses are the sole source of truth about trade and other issues © 2018 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots. Donald Trump, justyifying the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by his supporters © 2021 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. If they don't get those two items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it. Donald Trump, admitting he's authorized sabotaging the US Postal Service by denying it money needed to function and to support universal mail-in voting during a pandemic because polls show 74% of Democrats but only 22% of Republicans are likely to vote using mail-in ballots © 2020 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say They spend a couple of days in jail, make a new friend, and they are ready to talk. Donald Trump on findiing leakers by jailing journalists, as quoted in James Comey's 2/14/17 memo © 2018 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say This is third-world-country stuff, “arrest your opponent.” And that means I can do that, too. Donald Trump, promising to take revenge against those he holds responsible for state and federal crimnal prosecutions of him and his cronies, and against government officials he deems insufficiently loyal to him and them, if he's re-elected in 2024 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Donald Trump, 8:02 AM - 24 Jun 2018, advocating suspending due process © 2018 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say We pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections. They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream. Donald Trump, November 7, 2023, calling the kettle black  © 2024 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say We won. We won in a landslide. This was a landslide.  Donald Trump's Big Lie, January 6, 2021, and for weeks beforehand © 2021 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say We got immunity at the Supreme Court. It’s so easy. I would fire him within two seconds. Donald Trump, responding to Hugh Hewitt, who asked, “You’re either going to have to pardon yourself or you’re have to fire Jack Smith [the special counsel investigating him]. Which one will you do?” © 2024 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say We'll have to see what happens. You know that I've been complaining very strongly about the [mail-in] ballots, and the ballots are a disaster. Get rid of the ballots and you'll have a very transfer, we'll have a very peaceful. There won't be a transfer, frankly, there'll be a continuation. Donald Trump, when asked if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses his reelection bid  © 2020 Kwiple.com
Wannabe autocrats say  When the president does it, that means it's not illegal. Richard Nixon © 2018 Kwiple.com
 
Wannabe autocrats say With Universal Mail-in Voting (and Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 wil be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarassment to the U.S.A. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote??  Donald Trump, 8:46 AM – Jul 30, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com