Aug 20th 2015

The Authoritarian Temptation

NEW YORK – Twenty-four years ago this month, Soviet hardliners, desperate to stop the country’s nascent democratic transition, arrested Mikhail Gorbachev and declared martial law. In response, millions of protesters poured into the streets of Moscow and towns across the Soviet Union. Key elements of the army refused to accept the coup, and it soon collapsed – with the Soviet Union soon to follow.

Even though economic conditions were dire in the USSR’s final months, people could see the freedoms that were coming and, unlike today, were willing to stand up for them. Indeed, in the early years of the democratic transition that followed, most post-communist voters did not succumb to the temptation to elect extremists who promised to end the hard times they were enduring. Instead, they usually chose the most sensible candidate available.

Russians, for example, rejected Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a clownish Donald Trump-like nationalist and anti-Semite, in favor of Boris Yeltsin, who had stared down tanks during the failed 1991 coup and recognized that his country’s future lay with democracy and the West. In Romania, the extremist poet Corneliu Vadim Tudor lost to a succession of corrupt pragmatists, beginning with Ion Iliescu, who had led the ouster of the country’s last communist leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Since then, the world has been turned upside down. As life has gotten easier, with people’s material expectations largely met, voters have increasingly favored neo-autocrats who promise to “protect” the people from this or that threat. Russian President Vladimir Putin, of course, leads this group, but there are also Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Czech President Miloš Zeman. And the trend extends beyond the former communist countries to include, for example, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The French philosopher Jean-François Revel saw the rise of violent dictatorships in the twentieth century as driven by a “totalitarian temptation.” What we are witnessing today is something a bit less sinister – call it an “authoritarian temptation.” But it is a growing threat not only to democracy, but also to global stability. After all, the one thing today’s autocrats have in common with their totalitarian predecessors is contempt for the rule of law, both domestically and internationally.

One cause for this shift toward authoritarianism is that many countries no longer view the United States as a beacon of democracy and a model of stability and prosperity to be emulated. Putin’s claim that democratization is actually an American plot “to gain unilateral advantages” resonates with many societies following the disastrous invasion of Iraq and revelations about the National Security Agency’s spying on citizens and leaders worldwide.

But even before these developments, the Cold War’s winners – and especially the US – were showing a boastfulness that probably alienated many. When even allies are treated with disrespect – recall George W. Bush’s infamous shout of “Yo, Blair,” as if then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair were some cowhand – people naturally wonder whether their country, too, is deemed subservient.

Rising “soft” dictators – what the journalist Bobby Ghosh calls authoritarian democrats – have used these feelings of unease and alienation to attract votes. Their supporters do not want to be oppressed, but they do want stability and national sovereignty – desires that their leaders fulfill partly by limiting opposition.

Given the reach of today’s mass media and social networks, only a few people must be targeted to cow the rest of society into conforming to the leader’s vision. So, instead of building gulags, neo-authoritarians launch criminal cases. The defendants range from political opponents and critics in Russia – such as the oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the anti-corruption lawyer Alexei Navalny – to independent journalists in Erdoğan’s Turkey.

Citizens seem convinced. At least 70% of Russians agree with Putin that this kind of “managed democracy” is superior to the chaotic version practiced in the West. Almost half of Hungary’s citizens find membership in the European Union, whose liberal values Orbán mocks, unnecessary. And more than 70% of Turks have a negative view of the US, which Erdoğan blames for the rise of social media (the “worst menace” facing Turkey today – trumping, it seems, even the Islamic State’s deadly attacks in Turkish cities).

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, people did not understand the link between capitalism and democracy. Many wanted a Western lifestyle, with access to the kinds of jobs and goods available in the US, but seemed not to recognize that access to that lifestyle requires increased economic and personal freedom – precisely the kind of freedom that underpins democratic societies.

If, in the current environment, Western powers attempted to point this out to the people of Russia, Hungary, or Turkey, they would likely stoke even greater resentment. The better option would be to work on the countries’ leaders. If the Putins, Erdoğans, and Orbáns of the world want to continue to benefit economically from the open international system, they cannot simply make up their own rules.

The power of such an approach can be seen in Russia, where Western sanctions, imposed following Putin’s annexation of Crimea, are the main factor limiting the pro-Russian rebels’ incursion in eastern Ukraine. Putin’s efforts to reclaim “great power” status for Russia may find support among his people; but that support will probably dwindle if Russians face the prospect of losing all of the comforts derived from the relatively open economy that their country has had for more than two decades.

At a time when more and more Russians are being denied passports to travel outside the country, those tempted by authoritarianism would do well to recall the elementary point made by John F. Kennedy in his Berlin speech in 1963. “Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect,” Kennedy said. “But we never had to put up a wall to keep our people in.”


Nina L. Khrushcheva is a dean at The New School in New York, and a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute, where she directs the Russia Project.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2015.
www.project-syndicate.org

 


This article is brought to you by Project Syndicate that is a not for profit organization.

Project Syndicate brings original, engaging, and thought-provoking commentaries by esteemed leaders and thinkers from around the world to readers everywhere. By offering incisive perspectives on our changing world from those who are shaping its economics, politics, science, and culture, Project Syndicate has created an unrivalled venue for informed public debate. Please see: www.project-syndicate.org.

Should you want to support Project Syndicate you can do it by using the PayPal icon below. Your donation is paid to Project Syndicate in full after PayPal has deducted its transaction fee. Facts & Arts neither receives information about your donation nor a commission.

 

 

Browse articles by author

More Current Affairs

Dec 6th 2008

NEW YORK - In the not-so-distant future, students will be able to graduate from high school without ever touching a book. Twenty years ago, they could graduate from high school without ever using a computer.

Dec 5th 2008

NEW YORK - We are all Keynesians now. Even the right in the United States has joined the Keynesian camp with unbridled enthusiasm and on a scale that at one time would have been truly unimaginable.

Dec 4th 2008

BORDEAUX- Almost every day I run a gauntlet of beggars in this wealthy French town, mostly old men and women but sometimes rather prim middle-aged ladies.

Dec 3rd 2008

NEW DELHI - The fallout from the terror attacks in Mumbai last week has already shaken India.

Dec 3rd 2008

ISLAMABAD - Sitting next to a four-foot-tall water pipe, I asked the tribal leader in front of me: What does victory mean to you? He sputtered smoke, raised his bushy white eyebrows, and said, "Victory. How can you have victory here?"

Dec 1st 2008

We consume approximately one gram's worth of genes in every meal. This may not seem like very much, but each of our meals contains trillions of individual genes.

Dec 1st 2008

While Sydneysiders will venture that their harbour remains inimitable, that incomparably pagan place of beauty in the world (What of stunning beauties such as Stockholm? Or dashing, daring San Francisco Bay?), one of the primary reasons for its fame was due to a Dane.

Dec 1st 2008

In looking back at the now-completed presidential contest, it is striking to note the degree to which Arabs, Muslims, and Islam itself, were factored into the race.

Nov 28th 2008

MUMBAI - In most cities of South Asia, hidden beneath the grime and neglect of extreme poverty, there exists a little Somalia waiting to burst out and infect the body politic.

Nov 26th 2008

BERKELEY - The global financial crisis has breathed new life into hoary arguments about the euro's imminent demise.

Nov 25th 2008

A mounting chorus of voices -- including President-elect Obama's -- are linking any economic stimulus or any related bailout of Detroit to environmental and energy independence objectives.

Nov 24th 2008

CAMBRIDGE - The European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the euro are about to celebrate their tenth anniversary.

Nov 24th 2008

The euro has been something of a political scapegoat despite its runaway success, says Joaquin Almunia.

Nov 24th 2008

Because expectations across the Middle East are so high and the need for change is so great, during the next two months, all eyes will be focused on the early decisions made by President-elect Barack Obama.

Nov 22nd 2008

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Nov 21st 2008

WASHINGTON, DC - The financial crisis that began in 2007 has been persistently marked by muddled thinking and haphazard policymaking. Now, the United States Treasury is headed for a mistake of historic and catastrophic proportions by refusing to bail out America's Big Three automakers.

Nov 19th 2008

Haven't we seen this before? As Chrysler, Ford Motors and General Motors beg both the Bush administration and the transitional team of President elect Barack Obama to relieve them of financial woes, the similarities with the late 1970s can't be ignored.

Nov 18th 2008

There is an old cliché which says that the victors write history.