some of them won't get enough work to do. And if they don't get enough work to do, they demotivate everybody else by their mere authoritarian one, did that to any tech leader, at least at this scale. There are good reasons for that, because you're sacrificing
real battle is not between the Democrats Republicans or right and left the real battle is between what I call authoritarian populism and what you might call Progressive populism the differencebetween them is that author authoritarian populism essentially is nativist and xenophobic tramples on not
the Muslim Community between cleric and and follower um you know if you don't break out of that kind of uh uh authoritarian religious relationship uh then it's very difficult to see what you're going to do with the rest of your life and part of the world you know andagain when you think of some of the clerics with they have 15 million followers all you know within within the region um and they make their
You can see it as a Jeffersonian tale that would resonate in the United States about rebellion and the need for a kind of monitoring of potentially authoritarian governance. There are crazy theories about Jar Jar Binks being a Sith Lordor about Han Solo having the force or about the wonderfulness of the Empire.
consequential elections in Serbia uh in Georgia in kyrgistan uh in a number of authoritarian Ian countries do a really bad job of governing the ones that are economically successful are normally the
So, a couple of years ago, a uh philanthropic foundation in the United States asked me to do some research to find out why authoritarianism was gaining ground around the globe. So, I interviewed uh, you civic leaders in West Africa and scholars in Eastern Europe and democracy leaders in Latin America. And I asked
A little fascism flare-up. Authoritarianism is flaring up around the globe. Not because of anything authoritarianism is doing right, but because of what democracy is getting wrong, and in particular, that democracy is not delivering like, real,
leaders. You know there's more demands on citizens. You know you have to participate if you care about your country. It's not just enough to vote. authoritarianism, and it's also a tool.
elections can continue and I started watching that happen in multiple countries at the same time and I saw this authoritarian instinct started to come back and that's what I write about now are these just election cycles or is there something bigger at play here because you know I spend a lot time reading articles from decades ago or
So we're in the business, the United States, of both exporting the tools of freedom and tools of control. The authoritarian countries, China, in particular, has a robust export business in selling what it's learned over the last 20 years, its technologies of control. And it has helped Russia.
And then there's authoritative. So authoritarian is the military-type style, and then authoritative is sort of halfway in between-- it's in the middle between permissive and authoritarian . And authoritative parenting is when there are clear rules, where there are clear consequences.
very very quickly it became difficult for the autocrats in Paraguay to say no no but we we will benefit from from our own authoritarian regime it becomes a non-credible argument what you also see is countries like the Russians Putin has specialized in this in sounding the
that's so effective?" Pretty much everyone I talked to said I was asking the wrong question. That authoritarianism wasn't surging because of anything it was doing right, but because of what democracy was getting wrong. That stopped me in my tracks.
Messing with elections like that is a direct threat to democracy, and if AI can help people do it, then it could easily become a tool of authoritarianism – a pretty powerful one. And the more AI gets implemented in things like politics and economics, the more power it’ll have in those systems– and the more it will be able to enforce the values
It's down to roughly 6%. The authoritarianism-- so Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are both willing to speak the language of law and order, and use the tools of coercion to try to repress outgroups.
build actually a strong majority, not just like a 50-50 election, but a big majority against this authoritarian threat, but also for not just against, but for, you know, essentially a Democratic party that represents the underdog, which to
And all the money that's being spent on these sorts of technologies to go inside the head had better keep these issues in mind. in the hands of authoritarian dictatorships or individuals who are smart, super smart, we absolutely have human rights worries.
We used to describe the Chinese Communist Party through the lens of almost an exceptionalism. So most authoritarian regimes-- and the Chinese Communist Party is an authoritarian regime-- they don't last very long. They live short, brutish, violent existences, and they fall from a number of different threats.
And so some of the language we used to describe the party at this time was-- we used to call it responsive authoritarianism or consultative authoritarianism. In general, this is a more tolerable form of authoritarian regime. This wasn't a tinpot dictatorship.
So now, for the first time, we don't have a successor, which means this can generate instability. So if an authoritarian regime-- we don't know. If something ever happened to Xi Jinping, if he had a health problem or something like this, there would be a major public power struggle.
It's down to roughly 6%. So Xi Jinping is authoritarian .
It's down to roughly 6%. In other authoritarian countries-- so Putin and other authoritarian leaders have public opinion polling about them.
The democratic institutions are too slow to work. And then the authoritarian who wants, in fact, to take advantage of all of that and exacerbates it, and that's how you get to authoritarian government. Because the democratic institutions are not operating fast enough.
that they reject authoritarian alternatives to democracy, and most importantly, that all of the parties and political candidates in the system actually accept the most basic rules and norms
Do they still reject authoritarian alternatives, and most importantly, aren't there more and more politicians who seem to challenge that?
It is anti-authoritarian in a sense it tries to challenge given structures of discourse, and tries to approach them by kind of reframing that
So that is, in effect-- so I would say that in this battle for control-- for openness versus control in authoritarian states, I would say that authoritarian states are winning. And I would love to know if any of you disagree with that.
of one-party or authoritarian political system.
rules through an authoritarian very bureaucratic and hierarchical structure.
Governments are authoritarian . Governments don't have those price signals.
And there's terrific empirical work suggesting that informational cascades and reputational cascades were crucial to when those happened. But the fall of authoritarian governance isn't just a product of cascade effects. They're also authoritarian governments, and what is sought to replace them by the rebels
But the fall of authoritarian governance isn't just a product of cascade effects. They're also authoritarian governments, and what is sought to replace them by the rebels is something that has higher intrinsic quality, which is to suggest that to attribute the success of "Star Wars"
The trademark of corrupted authoritarian regime is bad management.
So where silly meets authoritarian we're calling it the cajoling section on the bottom left.
And then authoritarian meets earnest.
they're not enforced well. There's the authoritarian style of parenting, where there are very strict rules that are enforced harshly with punishment and no explanation of those rules. And then there's authoritative.
much too authoritarian , much too arbitrary about his decisions. And that's why WikiLeaks itself, as an organization, is some somewhat falling apart.
made by various authoritarian forces to stop this being unaffected well i
economic opportunity, democracy starts to feel meaningless. And that makes authoritarianism and other forms of government more attractive, not in and of themselves, but by default, because democracy is defaulting on its
Authoritarianism is flaring up around the globe. Not because of anything authoritarianism is doing right, but because of what democracy is getting wrong, and in particular, that democracy is not delivering like, real, tangible improvements in people's lives, in particular financial improvements.
our citizens authoritarians ? It turns out that one of the answers is creating multiple media.
And that authoritarianism is resulting in-- has a variety of impacts on different issues.
And the rise of authoritarianism coincides with the rise of explicit white supremacy.
battle between authoritarianism and democracy the idea the very idea of right and wrong uh and on and on but
And this gave way to authoritarian governments, economic distress, and violence, leaving Latin Americans with a sense of fatigue and a lot of trauma to process.
Are we saying something from an authoritarian standpoint also?
This is a problem of a more authoritarian parent like me.
And all the money that's being spent on these sorts of technologies to go inside the head had better keep these issues in mind. a problem that might emerge in authoritarian dictatorships.
to pre-enlightenment and more authoritarian values.
And the drivers won't be authoritarian governments.