We mainly associate dictators like Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin with the fear of violence and murder. However, modern dictators work differently. An expert explains how they moved from physical strength and muscle flexing to more subtle forms of manipulation.
“In today’s Russia (editor’s note: the period before the start of a full-scale war), you can write a book about what is wrong with Vladimir Putin and maybe they will even let you publish the book. It is even possible that you will not go to jail for the contents of the book. The problem will arise elsewhere. People won’t buy it and it will fail. And this is the result of the good work of the spin dictators. They control public opinion so well that it is very difficult to criticize them, because people have blinders on their eyes,” explains the political scientist from Charles University in Prague in an interview JaroslavWHITE.
According to the expert, Robert Fico belongs to the group of politicians who do not take the relationship with democracy seriously. “I would like us to blame only Fico, but the efforts to influence independent media say something else: it looks like an attempt to follow the path of Hungary.”
In the interview you will read:
– how modern dictators work,
– why was Viktor Orbán labeled a spin dictator,
– how Robert Fico changed,
– how autocrats will afford themselves after Trump wins.
The book Spin Dictators: How the Face of Tyranny is Changing in the 21st Century, written by Sergey Guryev and Daniel Treisman, compares the dictators of fear and the so-called spin dictators. How do modern dictators work today?
Dictators such as Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin are mainly associated with the fear of physical violence and murder. In today’s world, however, there is significantly less violence and murder, because such a form of government is not suitable for the 21st century and attracts criticism at home and abroad. And at the same time it is expensive because dictators need to have a group of people who will kill for them. The authoritarian’s need to control society has shifted from physical strength and muscle display to more subtle forms of manipulation. Controlling the media and influencing people via the Internet is useful for this nowadays.
There is a beautiful note in the book. In today’s Russia (editor’s note: the period before the start of a full-scale war), you can write a book about what’s wrong with Vladimir Putin and they might let you publish it. It is even possible that you will not go to jail for the contents of the book. The problem will arise elsewhere. People won’t buy it and the book will fail. Either they won’t care or they won’t trust you.
And this is the result of the good work of the spin dictators. They control public opinion so well that it is very difficult to criticize them because people are blindfolded. This is probably the biggest transformation of autocrats from dictators since the Cold War.
The authors include, for example, Viktor Orbán, who is also close to our Prime Minister Robert Fico, among the spin dictators. Why do they consider the Hungarian Prime Minister a spin dictator?
Just as we have different democracies, we also have different non-democratic regimes. They differ in quality, and therefore we cannot compare the situation in Russia and Hungary.
