Authoritarianism Term Analysis

Authoritarianism is a form of government in which power is heavily concentrated, political dissent and opposition parties are banned or actively repressed, and citizens have limited civil rights. An authoritarian state may be ruled by a single leader (dictator), a party, the military, or small networks of corrupt officials (in an oligarchy). Because authoritarian governments are not accountable to institutions or citizens, they often (but not always) rule through tyranny, putting the self-interest of leaders above the interests of the nation. In some cases, they give way to totalitarianism, an extreme and often violent kind of absolute control by the state. In this book, many of Snyder’s examples of tyranny are authoritarian regimes, like communist Czechoslovakia and present-day Russia. While authoritarianism and democracy are generally opposed, they are not mutually exclusive, and Snyder points out that democracies frequently turn into authoritarian governments—which, he argues, the United States risks doing by electing Donald Trump.