The rise American autocracy is happening before our eyes because of the “growth of dark money and the lack of transparency in politics,” according to expert Anne Applebaum.
Applebaum’s new book “Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World” gives a frightening overview of how modern dictators work together to crush democracy. The Pulitzer-prize winning author lays out the new tactics autocrats use to take over the world and offers ways that democracies can rally to defeat them. On her website, the New York Times bestselling author describes how the modern autocrats are different from the dictators of the 20th century. Applebaum writes,”The members of Autocracy, Inc, aren’t linked by a unifying ideology, like communism, but rather a common desire for power, wealth, and impunity.”
Modern Autocracy Isn’t Just One Bad Guy
In an essay for The Atlantic, the best-selling author wrote: “Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services (military, police, paramilitary groups, surveillance), and professional propagandists. The corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another. The police in one country can arm, equip, and train the police in another. The propagandists share resources – the troll farms… [that] pound home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America.”
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is leading the fight against dark money in American politics. Whitehouse told Financial Times, “Secrecy and democracy are antithetical.If American citizens aren’t allowed to understand who’s who on the political playing field, who’s playing for what team, who they really are, who they’re representing, you have disabled perhaps the most fundamental foundation of democracy.”
How did America get where it is today? The dangerous rise of Kleptocracy began in the 1990s by who else but Vladimir Putin.
Success of Autocracy, Inc Started With Putin
Financial Times gives an excellent overview of how today’s “Autocracy Inc” began in Russia with Vladimir Putin. The outlet explains how Putin’s kleptocratic model spread and now the autocrats hidden world of wealth is endangering democracies.
According to the outlet, Donald Trump has sold real estate to shady shell companies for over 40 years. According to FT, “A fifth of the sales in Trump-owned and Trump-licensed buildings, more than 1,300 properties, were made to anonymously owned shell companies, for cash, without a mortgage, which meant the purchasers did not have to have any uncomfortable conversations with lenders.”
Applebaum told The Guardian that “The globalization of finance, the plethora of hiding places, and the benign tolerance that democracies have shown for foreign graft now give autocrats opportunities that few could have imagined a couple of decades ago.” The autocracy expert estimates Putin’s net worth to be between $70 and $200 billion.
United States Gets More Aggressive
On September 4, The Department of Justice charged two Russian nationals with paying right-wing influencers big money to spread disinformation to help Donald Trump win the election, per CBS News.
According to the DOJ, there are other media outlets and influencers being paid to spew Russia talking points.
Listen to the New Autocracy Podcast and Read “Autocracy, Inc”
Applebaum and Peter Pomerantsev launched a new podcast September 6 called “Autocracy in America,” that is fascinating and frightening.
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2024/08/introducing-autocra…
Order a copy of “Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World.”
