The weakness of the authoritarian playbook

Strongmen around the world are dismantling democracy with the same smooth script, cloaking power grabs in the language of renewal and protection. Yet their favorite tactic - incremental, ambiguous ‘reforms’ - can be turned against them when citizens learn to spot the pattern early. As the experiences of Hungary, Poland, and Israel show, information moves faster than authoritarianism, and recognizing the playbook is the first step toward stopping it, argues Filip Milačić in The Review of Democracy.