The global erosion of democracy poses a serious threat to the lives and futures of people everywhere. Democracy’s defenders must put countering authoritarianism at the center of their foreign policy, national security strategies and domestic reform agendas. They must also understand how autocrats gain and maintain power in order to develop effective responses to them.
Today’s autocrats have developed an international environment that is more favorable to their rise, largely as a result of their own economic and political might and the weakening of democratic pressure on them. This new order is not based on a unifying ideology or personal affinity between leaders, but rather on their shared interest in avoiding checks on abuses and maintaining control over states, economies and societies. A world ruled by such autocrats would be dangerously unstable and chaotic, riddled with lawlessness, war and corruption, at an immense cost to human life.
In many cases, authoritarian leaders come to power democratically and then erode the system of checks and balances that had provided legitimacy in the past. They fill the civil service and key appointments with cronies, shut down universities and nongovernmental organizations, attack the media and foment distrust of democracy among the populace to consolidate their power. They can also declare national emergencies to seize power in ways that are unchecked by the legislature or judiciary.
These tactics, described by scholars as “salami tactics,” cut away a sliver of democracy at a time. As a result, countries that once were deemed democracies are now classified as authoritarian or near-autocratic by some academic and international institutes, including the Economist Democracy Index, Freedom House and V-Dem.