Autocracy, Inc.
Anne Applebaum is a staff writer for The Atlantic and a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the SNF Agora Institute. One of her acclaimed books published in 2024, Autocracy, Inc.: Dictators Who Want to Run the World, investigates where autocracy came from, why it persists, how the democratic world originally helped consolidate autocratic countries, and how we can defeat autocracy. Anne describes autocratic governments as an agglomeration of companies that share a ruthless, single-minded determination to preserve their personal wealth and power. These governments are willing to destabilize their own countries, even at the cost of destroying the lives of ordinary and innocent citizens. Having lived under an autocratic regime in Burma, Autocracy, Inc. speaks truth to me in many ways.
Chapter 1, The Greed That Binds, starts with the assumption that in a more open and interconnected world, democracy and liberal ideas would spread to autocratic states. Instead, autocracy and illiberalism have spread to the democratic world. Autocracy, Inc. depicts a world in which autocracies work together to stay in power, promote their system, and damage democracies. Anne also reports how kleptocracy and autocracy go hand in hand. Some examples of kleptocracy include real estate agents who do not ask too many questions in Sussex or Hampshire, bankers in Sioux Falls who are happy to accept mystery deposits from mystery clients, and factory owners eager to unload failing businesses in Warren. In summary, the financial instruments available in democratic countries—used by nameless investors to hide their money from the world—have come to undermine the rule of law around the globe.
Autocracy, Inc. notes that there is no liberal world order anymore, simply because autocratic governments are replacing experts with loyalists. According to Anne, in Putin’s Russia, Assad’s Syria, or Maduro’s Venezuela, politicians and television personalities often play a different game: they lie constantly, blatantly, and obviously. But when they are exposed, they don’t bother to offer counterarguments. Some autocratic countries under sanctions survive by utilizing new sources of funding such as drug trafficking, illegal mining, extortion, kidnapping, and gasoline smuggling.
The book also discusses the emergence of hybrid states between 1980 and 2002—countries that trade normally with the democratic world but are also willing to launder or accept criminal or stolen wealth or to assist people and companies that have been sanctioned. The group of countries known as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) is transforming itself into an alternative international institution, with regular meetings and new members. In January 2024, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the U.A.E., and Ethiopia were welcomed into the group, giving it the flavor of a new Moscow- and Beijing-oriented world order.
Autocracy, Inc. also investigates the rise of local protests around the world calling for democratic reforms. One example is the #ThisFlag movement in Zimbabwe, considered one of the most influential civilian-led political movements, which inspired subsequent protests and contributed to the eventual resignation of President Mugabe in 2017.
Anne points out that a school of thought held dearly by Western—especially American—students of foreign policy sees the world as a series of separate issues (Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the South China Sea), each requiring a different cadre of experts or specialists. But that is not how autocracies see the world. Autocracy, Inc. shows how Putin backs far-right and extremist movements in Europe and has provided thugs and weapons to support African dictatorships. It is clear that autocracies track one another’s defeats and victories, timing their own moves to create maximum chaos.
Autocracy, Inc. suggests that democracies around the world, along with democratic activists in authoritarian countries, should see their fight as not against certain countries or peoples, but against authoritarian behavior itself, no matter where it happens. It’s not about a "war with China" or any one nation — it’s about opposing actions that threaten freedom and democracy everywhere. Therefore, fighting autocracy first requires understanding that we are facing an epidemic of information laundering and committing to exposing it when we can. The book offers several other suggestions:
We need networks of lawyers and public officials to fight corruption at home and abroad, in cooperation with democratic activists who understand kleptocracy best.
We need military and intelligence coalitions that can anticipate and halt lawless violence.
We need economic warriors in multiple countries who can track the impact of sanctions in real time, understand who is breaking them, and take steps to stop them.
We need people willing to organize online and coordinate campaigns to identify and debunk dehumanizing propaganda. A joint effort among diasporas—for example, from Russia, Hong Kong, Venezuela, and Iran—could have a far larger impact than any group could achieve alone.
We could require all real estate transactions in the U.S. and Europe to be fully transparent. We could require companies to register under their actual owners and trusts to reveal the names of their beneficiaries.
We could ban citizens from keeping money in jurisdictions that promote secrecy and ban lawyers and accountants from engaging with them.
We could close loopholes that allow anonymity in the private equity and hedge fund industries.
We could create effective enforcement teams that operate across countries and continents, in coordination with international partners.
Autocracy, Inc. challenges readers to confront the harsh realities of autocracy and invites them to reassess their critical roles as citizens, policymakers, business leaders, and educators. As Anne warns, NOBODY’S DEMOCRACY IS SAFE.
