Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

Short for “British exit,” Brexit was an extremely controversial political campaign to have the United Kingdom exit the European Union, an economic and political union of 27 European nations. It truly began with a referendum held on June 2016, in which a majority of the British public (although mostly in England) voted to leave the European Union. It was supported by Britain’s conservative Tory Party and the UK Independence Party. Its most prominent supporters have included prime ministers Teresa May and Boris Johnson. Applebaum argues Brexit and its supporters have an agenda that extends beyond just leaving the European Union, such as limiting the powers of British courts, defunding the BBC, and purging civil servants (103-04).

Clerc is a French word, meaning literally “clerk” but which can also mean “intellectual.” Applebaum takes the term from French writer Julian Benda’s 1927 book La trahison des clercs. Specifically, in her usage, it refers to journalists, political commentators, and intellectuals whose work undermines democracy and supports authoritarianism in some way. Authoritarians “need the people who can use sophisticated legal language, people who can argue that breaking the constitution or twisting the law is the right thing to do” (17), and these are whom Applebaum terms clerks. Specific examples include Jacek Kurski in Poland (29), John O’Sullivan from the United Kingdom (86), Rafael Bardaji from Spain (124), and Laura Ingraham in the United States (159).

Related to restorative nostalgia, cultural despair is a concept from the German-American historian Fritz Stern’s biography of the 19th-century German art historian Julius Langbehn. Langbehn’s own book Rembrandt as Educator “was permeated with nostalgia for a different, better time, a time when men were active and not passive, a time when great leaders could make their mark on the world” (77). This is a characteristic seen among the people Applebaum describes as clercs. One example is the American Patrick Buchanan, whom Applebaum cites as saying, “In our schools the history books have been rewritten and old heroes blotted out, as their statues are taken down and their flags are put away” (150).

A right-wing and authoritarian political party in Hungary, Fidesz is one of Applebaum’s examples of an illiberal political movement. Fidesz was founded as a center-left party opposing Hungary’s then Communist government. However, it shifted to the right in 1993. It has been the dominant party in Hungary since 2010 under its leader, President Viktor Orbán. Applebaum argues Fidesz has held on to power by politicizing the state media and destroying the private map, has cultivated a loyal business elite, and promotes conspiracy theories against Muslims, the European Union, and Jewish millionaire George Soros (46-47).

A right-wing political party in Poland, Law and Justice (in Polish, “Prawo i Sprawiedliwość”) was founded in 2001 by the twin brothers Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński. The party is currently the largest political party in Poland and has been accused of authoritarian beliefs and actions. Applebaum alleges that Law and Justice fired generals, diplomats, and civil servants and replaced them with people loyal to the party; took over the courts and media; tried to curtail public discussion of Poland’s role in the Holocaust; and attacked Muslim immigrants and gay people (5-8). It is one of the political parties and movements Applebaum holds up as illiberal or authoritarian.

Liberalism is an extremely complicated term whose exact meaning can vary depending on the context, especially the country or time period. For example, in the present-day United States, it is often used just to refer to members and supporters of the Democratic Party. However, the original, 19th-century sense of the term, which Applebaum uses to describe herself and most of the guests at her 1999 party (2), was much broader. In this definition, liberalism includes the following beliefs:

• A rejection of aristocracy, an elite that inherits political power solely through birth.
• Support for political representation and checks and balances in government.
• Limited regulation of commerce and manufacturing by governments.
• Free trade and cooperation between nations.

Of course, political parties can and do disagree over what these beliefs mean in practice. For example, they can debate over how much regulation there should be over business and manufacturing and who gets to decide on which regulations. In this sense, in the United States, both the Republican and the Democratic parties would belong to the liberal tradition. However, Applebaum would argue that the Republican Party “had changed” by 2008 and moved in an illiberal direction (162).

In contrast to the Big Lies used by the Fascist and Communist governments of the 20th century, the illiberal governments rely on what Applebaum calls Medium-Size Lies. Borrowing the term from historian Timothy Snyder, Applebaum argues that Medium-Size Lies represent an “alternative reality” and “[s]ometimes that alternative reality has developed organically; more often, it’s been carefully formulated, with the help of modern marketing techniques, audience segmentation, and social-media campaigns” (38). Examples include the conspiracy theory in the United States that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and the Smolensk conspiracy theory, which holds despite a lack of evidence that the plane crash that killed Polish president Lech Kaczyński was planned, not an accident (38, 39-45).

Applebaum takes this concept from the Russian artist and writer Svetlana Boym’s book The Future of Nostalgia. Reflective nostalgia just represents a mourning for the past, without a desire to see it restored (73-74). On the other hand, those with restorative nostalgia want to rebuild their own idea of the past: “They are not interested in a nuanced past […]. They want the cartoon version of history, and more importantly, they want to live in it, right now” (74-75). Applebaum argues that restorative nostalgia is an important driver behind authoritarian movements and individuals.