Departments

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authoritarianism

  • SOURCE: Boston Globe
    11/11/2020

    Trump’s Big Election Lie Pushes America Toward Autocracy

    by Timothy Snyder

    "A claim that an election was illegitimate is a claim to remaining in power. A coup is under way, and the number of participants is not shrinking but growing. Few leading Republicans have acknowledged that the race is over."

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    11/10/2020

    Authoritarians From Mussolini to Trump (review)

    by Francis Fukuyama

    The political theorist Francis Fukuyama offers a brief review of Ruth Ben-Ghiat's book on authoritarian strongmen, and suggests paying more attention to Trump's unique characteristics in order to prepare for future instances of Trumpism.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    11/20/2020

    How to Shame a Dictator

    The families of victims of Argentina's far-right "dirty war" didn't let the perpetrators go unpunished after regime change; they took direct action to expose those who committed crimes and pressed for the repeal of amnesty laws. 

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    11/10/2020

    By Humoring Trump, The GOP Is Enabling Authoritarianism

    by Max Boot

    "One senior Republican official told The Post: 'What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change.' What’s the downside? Only the undermining of our democracy."

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    11/11/2020

    The Dangers of Trump's Last Stand

    While Trump's refusal to concede is alarming, historians Federico Finchelstein, Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Samuel Moyn say that Trump's presidency has been mostly bark and little bite; he has the bluster of a dictator, but not the skill or diligence to consolidate his power to transform major institutions. 

  • 11/10/2020

    Is this a Slow-Moving Coup?

    by HNN Staff

    As Trump refuses to concede, few Republicans have repudiated his baseless charges of election fraud. Are they indulging a sore loser or starting a coup? 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    11/6/2020

    America’s Next Authoritarian Will Be Much More Competent

    by Zeynep Tufekci

    Trump grasps the theatrics of authoritarian leadership, but doesn't have the skill or diligence to follow through with policy to turn the crises he creates to his advantage. More resilient autocrats elsewhere provide examples that other American politicians are likely to follow. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    11/7/2020

    Trump Won't Accept Defeat. Ever

    by Anne Applebaum

    "This is a president who never had America’s interests at heart. Do not expect loss to change him."

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    11/7/2020

    Confronting the Damage of Trumpism

    by David W. Blight

    To rebuild a society and a political system, we must admit that they are broken. Institutionally, America is broken.

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    11/9/2020

    Cienfuegos Must also Answer for the Apatzingán Massacre

    by Laura Castellanos

    The former Secretary of National Defense for Mexico has been arrested on charges related to drug trafficking. He must face accountability for overseeing a security regime that perpetrated coordinated violence against journalists and civilians. 

  • SOURCE: The New Yorker

    Is American Tolerance for Political Violence on the Rise?

    by Bernard Avishai

    Things get dicier when these attitudes bleed into opinions about the legitimacy of a government led by the other side. Only forty-four per cent of Trumpists said that they’d regard a Joe Biden victory as legitimate.

  • SOURCE: The Guardian
    11/1/2020

    Scholars Warn of Collapse of Democracy

    More than 80 signatories, including professors and other scholars at universities in the US, Canada, and Europe, do not agree on whether to label Donald Trump a “fascist."

  • SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
    10/29/2020

    Meeting Gorbachev, Fleeing Imelda

    by Astrid S. Tuminez

    The contrasting political fortunes of Mikhail Gorbachev and Imelda Marcos offer a warning that public-spirited leadership is not always rewarded as much as naked personal ambition. 

  • SOURCE: New York Review of Books
    10/27/2020

    Developments Since My Birth

    by Wallace Shawn

    Wallace Shawn argues Trump has given Americans license to do what they've long wanted to do: abandon the moral obligation of compassion and even the work of paying lip service to it.