The Rise of Autocratic Practices

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China has established that autocracy sort of works. But the interesting point is basically none of these autocracies have tried to replicate the bits of the Chinese model that actually do work because they don't understand it, and they don't seem to care very much about performance in that way. So I think we have to answer why this is happening. And I think there are three ways of accounting for it - disappointed, power hungry individuals,. mostly rather mediocre, realized that this was the bandwagon to get on for personal advancement.

In this third episode of Martin Wolf’s series, the renowned FT columnist and economist speaks to the journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, who has written extensively about the history of communism and the development of civil society in central and eastern Europe. Drawing on arguments in Martin’s latest book, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, they discuss what lies behind a global rise in autocracy and what can be done to counter it.

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This episode is presented by Martin Wolf. The producer is Laurence Knight. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa and the sound engineer is Breen Turner. The FT's global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Clips: C-Span, France 24, Soviet radio, BBC, Stanford University, CBS

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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