The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium

by Martin Gurri

So, I don’t see authoritarian rulers prospering under current conditions. The 2010s bear little resemblance to the 1930s. That is the explicit answer to the “abroad” part of my question. Xi Jinping may flex China’s muscle in Asia, but he knows that war will unleash domestic passions that could blow apart his precariously balanced regime. Vladimir Putin may play great power games on the edges of his rickety empire, but he’s no more likely than Spain to invade Europe. China and Russia don’t pretend to be rival models to democracy: they are, in fact, old-fashioned industrial-age hierarchies intent on looting their own people.