authoritarianism

• 
• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  7/2/2020
  

  Our First Authoritarian Crackdown (Review)

  by Brenda Wineapple

  Wendell Bird argues that the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 were used more broadly than historians have recognized, and reflect a shakier foundation of free speech in the early Republic. 

• 
• SOURCE: ProPublica
  6/9/2020
  

  The Police Have Been Spying on Black Reporters and Activists for Years. I Know Because I’m One of Them.

  by Wendi C. Thomas

  Wendi C. Thomas is a black journalist who has covered police in Memphis. One officer admitted to spying on her. She’s on a long list of prominent black journalists and activists who have been subjected to police surveillance over decades.

• 
• 5/24/2020
  

  No More Business as Usual! It’s Time for Joe Biden to Defend our Democracy

  by Claudia Koonz

  A historian of European dictatorship argues that Joe Biden must recognize that not just the election but the health of democracy is at stake and challenge the administration's efforts to operate above the law.

• 
• 4/26/2020
  

  Trump's Quislings

  by David Driesen

  Autocrats use law not to achieve the laws’ objectives, but to subdue opposition and bolster their supporters. If Trump remains in office, America will likely lose its freedom through these forces. 

• 
• 4/26/2020
  

  The COVID Crisis is Accelerating a Global Shift to Authoritarianism (In America, Too)

  by Luke Reader

  Does the handling of the coronavirus mark a failure of government policy? The answer depends what the administration wanted from the crisis. If his goal was to concentrate power, Trump may be succeeding.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  4/3/2020
  

  Common-Good Constitutionalism Is an Idea as Dangerous as They Come

  by Garrett Epps

  A recently published theory of law is an argument for authoritarian extremism.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/16/2020
  

  How the Coronavirus Could Trigger a Backslide on Freedom Around the World

  by Allie Funk and Isabel Linzer

  Authorities worldwide are using the coronavirus as a pretext to crack down on human rights for political purposes. 

• 
• 9-10-17
  

  Lessons from German History after Charlottesville

  by Jeffrey Herf

  What we do  –  and do not  –  have to worry about.

• 
• SOURCE: Informed Comment
  5-10-17
  

  Which Middle East Authoritarian Leader is Trump most Like?

  by Juan Cole

  Of course, Trump hasn’t yet done anything as egregious as al-Sisi or Erdogan. But he is clearly supporting them and perhaps learning from their tactics. But we can learn, too, for the purposes of the resistance.

• 
• SOURCE: Think Progress
  3-9-17
  

  Experts in authoritarianism say Trump’s agenda has settled. And it’s scary.

  The administration’s trying to create a new reality through racist policies and dangerous rhetoric, say scholars.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  2-16-17
  

  Trump's America and the rise of the authoritarian personality

  by Magnus Linden

  Since the horror of Hitler’s Holocaust, psychologists have investigated why certain individuals appear more prone to follow orders from authority figures, even if it means that they have to sacrifice humanitarian values while doing so.

• 
• 7-5-15
  

  It’s Déjà vu All Over Again: Authoritarian Regimes Are Back

  by Jonathan Adelman and Joseph Szyliowicz

  In the last nine years authoritarianism has been on the march, threatening the democratic advances made by the United States since World War II.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  10-29-13
  

  Chinese Communism and the 70-Year Itch

  by Larry Diamond

  Authoritarian regimes tend not to last past the seventy-year mark.

• 

• The Egyptian Revolution Goes Napoleon

  by Jack Censer

  The same disillusionment set in as the French Revolution progressed. In fact, in a superb article in the Chronicle of Higher Education published in 2006, Howard Brown of the University of Binghamton described how events of the Revolution presaged events of 2006. It seems to me that Brown's article actually does even better to foreshadow what has happened in Egypt the last month and especially this week. His article concentrates on the trajectory from constitutionalism to repression under Napoleon. The biggest difference is the incredible speed of the current transformation compared to two centuries ago. It took a month in Egypt for what transpired in France over a decade.  This, of course, relates to the same acceleration in the revolutionary process that Alyssa Sepinwall described elsewhere in this blog.