The Playbook of the Autocrats

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The playbook that the autocrats have been using starts by demonizing the opposition as illegitimate and not really of and for the people. They go to war on the media, because if you don't have a free and pluralistic media, you've lost one of the most vital checks on tyranny. Then they just move through the other levers of power, the civil service, the intelligence services, certainly the state security apparatus. This is a common playbook. It's visible across all these authoritarian projects.

In this second episode of Martin Wolf’s series, the renowned FT columnist and economist speaks to Larry Diamond, a leading contemporary scholar in the field of democracy studies and a senior fellow in global democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Drawing on arguments in Martin’s latest book, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, they discuss what’s behind a deepening global ‘democratic recession’.

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Martin Wolf: in defence of democratic capitalism

For Martin’s FT columns click here

For the FT review of Martin’s book click here

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: BBC, CNN, WION

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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