How to Flip the Script on the Authoritarian Playbook

Aspiring autocrats often rely on the same script — from capturing courts to dressing power grabs up as ‘reforms.’ But as Filip Milačić shows in Project Syndicate, the very predictability of this authoritarian playbook can be turned against its authors. Drawing on cases from Hungary, Poland, and Israel, he argues that spreading knowledge of these tactics has helped democracy’s defenders mobilize earlier, slow backsliding, and raise the costs for would-be strongmen. Read it here.