BREAKING DOWN DEMOCRACY: Goals, Strategies, and Methods of Modern Authoritarians

BREAKING DOWN DEMOCRACY: Goals, Strategies, and Methods of Modern Authoritarians Beijing has revived the practice of coerced pub- lic “confessions” and escalated its surveillance of the Tibetan and Uighur minorities to totalitar- ian levels; and Azerbaijan has made the Aliyev family’s monopoly on political power painfully obvious with the appointment of the president's wife as “first vice president." ¢ Modern authoritarian systems are employing these blunter methods in a context of increased economic fragility. Venezuela is already in the process of political and economic disintegra- tion. Other states that rely on energy exports have also experienced setbacks due to low oil and gas prices, and China faces rising debt and slower growth after years of misallocated invest- ment and other structural problems. But these regimes also face less international pressure to observe democratic norms, raising their chanc- es of either surviving the current crises or—if they break down—giving way to something even worse, In subsequent sections, this report will examine the methods employed by authoritarian powers to neu- tralize precisely those institutions that were thought to be the most potent weapons against a revitalized authoritarianism. The success of the Russian and Chinese regimes in bringing to heel and even har- nessing the forces produced by globalization—digital media, civil society, free markets—may be their most impressive and troubling achievement. Modern authoritarianism is particularly insidious in its exploitation of open societies. Russia and China have both taken advantage of democracies’ commitment to freedom of expression and delivered infusions of pro- paganda and disinformation. Moscow has effectively prevented foreign broadcasting stations from reach- ing Russian audiences even as it steadily expands the reach of its own mouthpieces, the television channel RT and the news service Sputnik. China blocks the websites of mainstream foreign media while en- couraging its corporations to purchase influence in popular culture abroad through control of Hollywood studios. Similar combinations of obstruction at home and interference abroad can be seen in sectors in- cluding civil society, academia, and party politics. The report draws on examples from a broad group of authoritarian states and illiberal democracies, but the focus remains on the two leading authoritarian powers, China and Russia. Much of the report, in fact, deals with Russia, since that country, more than any other, has incubated and refined the ideas and institutions at the foundation of 21st-century author- itarianism. Finally, a basic assumption behind the report is that modern authoritarianism will be a lasting feature of geopolitics. Since 2012, both Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have doubled down on existing efforts to stamp out internal dissent, and both have grown more aggressive on the world stage. All despotic regimes have inherent weaknesses that leave them vulnerable to sudden shocks and individually prone to collapse. However, the past quarter-century has shown that dictatorship in general will not disappear on its own. Authoritarian systems will seek not just to survive, but to weaken and defeat democracy around the world. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019238