Contrary to what is commonly believed, authoritarian leaders who agree to hold elections are generally able to remain in power longer than autocrats who refuse to allow the populace to vote. In this engaging and provocative book, Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas expose the limitations of national elections as a means of promoting democratization, and reveal the six essential strategies that dictators use to undermine the electoral process in order to guarantee victory for themselves. Based on their firsthand experiences as election watchers and their hundreds of interviews with presidents, prime ministers, diplomats, election officials, and conspirators, Cheeseman and Klaas document instances of election rigging from Argentina to Zimbabwe, including notable examples from Brazil, India, Nigeria, Russia, and the United States-touching on the 2016 election. This eye-opening study offers a sobering overview of corrupted professional politics, while providing fertile intellectual ground for the development of new solutions for protecting democracy from authoritarian subversion.
An ex-US campaign advisor who has sat with the world's dictators explains Donald Trump's increasingly authoritarian tactics and the threat they pose to American democracy.
Donald Trump isn't a despot. But he is increasingly acting like the "despot's apprentice," an understudy in authoritarian tactics that threaten to erode American democracy, includingattacking the press,threatening rule of law by firing those who investigate his alleged wrongdoings,using nepotism to staff the White House, andcountless other techniques.Donald Trump is borrowing tactics from the world's dictators and despots. Trump's fascination for the military, his obsession with his own cult of personality, and his deliberate campaign to blur the line between fact and falsehood are nothing new to the world of despots. But they are new to the United States.
With each authoritarian tactic or tweet, Trump poses a unique threat to democratic government in the world's most powerful democracy.At the same time, Trump's apprenticeship has serious consequences beyond the United States. His bizarre adoration and idolization of despotic strongmen?from Russia's Putin, to Turkey's Erdogan, or to the Philippines' Duterte?has transformed American foreign policy into a powerful cheerleader for some of the world's worst regimes.
The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy explores how Trump uniquely threatens democracy?and how to save it from him.
