"Autocracies Inc": Book Talk on Urgent Call to Protect World’s Democracies w/ A. Applebaum

BOOK TALK: "Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World" by Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic magazine

Tuesday, July 30th, 2024 at 12 P.M. PDT

Online tickets:
Free for members
$10 nonmembers
$27 members with a book
$37 nonmembers with a book

RSVP: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2024-07-30/anne-applebaum-autocracy-inc


People think they know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top; he controls the police; the police threaten the people with violence; there are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents.

But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran. Corrupt companies in one country do business with corrupt companies in another. The police in one country can arm and train the police in another, and propagandists share resources and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America.

So what can be done?

Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times bestselling author Anne Applebaum says that international condemnation and economic sanctions cannot move the autocrats. Even popular opposition movements, from Venezuela to Hong Kong to Moscow, don't stand a chance. The members of “Autocracy, Inc.,” as she dubs the movement, aren't linked by a unifying ideology, like communism, but rather a common desire for power, wealth, and impunity.

Applebaum joins us for a special online program to share her urgent call for the world’s democracies to fundamentally reorient their policies to fight a new kind of threat. Join us the find out how that can be done.