Twilight
of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
by Anne Applebaum
Read or Download at: http://best.ebookcollection.space/?book=0385545800
"How did our democracy go wrong? This
extraordinary document . . . is Applebaum's answer." —Timothy Snyder,
author of On Tyranny
A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian
explains, with electrifying clarity, why elites in democracies around the world
are turning toward nationalism and authoritarianism.
From
the United States and Britain to continental Europe and beyond, liberal
democracy is under siege, while authoritarianism is on the rise. In Twilight of
Democracy, Anne Applebaum, an award-winning historian of Soviet atrocities who
was one of the first American journalists to raise an alarm about
antidemocratic trends in the West, explains the lure of nationalism and
autocracy. In this captivating essay, she contends that political systems with
radically simple beliefs are inherently appealing, especially when they benefit
the loyal to the exclusion of everyone else.
Despotic
leaders do not rule alone; they rely on political allies, bureaucrats, and
media figures to pave their way and support their rule. The authoritarian and
nationalist parties that have arisen within modern democracies offer new paths
to wealth or power for their adherents. Applebaum describes many of the new
advocates of illiberalism in countries around the world, showing how they use
conspiracy theory, political polarization, social media, and even nostalgia to
change their societies.
Elegantly
written and urgently argued, Twilight of Democracy is a brilliant dissection of
a world-shaking shift and a stirring glimpse of the road back to democratic
values.
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