Authoritarian rule is a dangerous and growing global threat. But amid political hyperbole and sensational spin, it is sometimes hard to separate the clear dangers from the noise. This article helps to isolate the signal by describing seven tactics that autocrats use to seize power and maintain their grip on it.
Despite the many ways in which it is disguised, authoritarianism tends to share core characteristics: limited political pluralism realized with constraints on legislatures and interest groups; curtailed civil liberties; propaganda campaigns that elicit a sense of loyalty or indignation; an insulated bureaucracy that is manipulated by regime cadres and a national media monopoly; and formal and informal alliances with like-minded autocracies. They work together to legitimize their repressive practices abroad, to deter international sanctions and embargoes, and to exploit the conciliatory tendencies of democracies.
Populist authoritarians emerge when institutions of representation seem ossified, when elites feel distant from citizens, and people search for alternatives that promise to directly solve their problems. They then claim a democratic mandate to restrict the freedoms of competing parties, use referenda to drastically extend their own terms in office, and play constitutional hardball to expand coercive security measures.
They also inflame politically-useful violence, bolster their cults of personality and aggrandize the trappings of office, and denigrate checks and balances as corrupt obstacles to the popular will. In a world of interconnected global risks, they stoke anxieties and fears to weaken the norms and trust that underpin democratic stability. They may even threaten to withdraw from regional and global multilateral organizations unless they get the support and legitimacy they need.