Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

by Anne Applebaum

These include the notion that the law is a neutral force, not subject to the whims of politics; that courts and judges should be independent; that political opposition is legitimate; that the rights to speech and assembly can be guaranteed; and that there can be independent journalists and writers and thinkers who are capable of being critical of the ruling party or leader while at the same time remaining loyal to the state.

Everyone assumed that in a more open, interconnected world, democracy and liberal ideas would spread to the autocratic states. Nobody imagined that autocracy and illiberalism would spread to the democratic world instead.

In this world, theft is rewarded. Taxes are not paid. Law enforcement is impotent and underfunded. Regulation is something to be dodged.

Dictators, political parties, and elites who have come to depend upon advanced Chinese technology to control their populations may also begin to feel some obligation to align themselves with China politically, or maybe even the necessity to do so, in order to stay in power. The more China can “bring other countries’ models of governance into line with China’s own,” argues Steven Feldstein, an expert in digital technology, “the less those countries pose a threat to Chinese hegemony.”

Slowly, the countries leading the assault on the language of rights, human dignity, and the rule of law are creating institutions of their own.

Transnational repression also degrades the rule of law in the countries where the crimes take place. Slowly, the police in the target country become accustomed to the violence; after all, it mostly affects foreigners.

We are used to thinking of “the West” influencing the world, but nowadays the influence often runs the other way. Even if we don’t believe it or don’t acknowledge it, that won’t make it go away.