People can easily be swayed toward obedience democratic institutions are the first to be dismantled by a dictator a single political party can eliminate all others. Still, other chapters present ways to stand out against dictators, if and when they achieve control.Ĭhapters 1 through 4 provide background on the traps dictators set and how to avoid them. Several chapters offer ways people can stand up to anti-democratic tendencies others suggest how citizens should develop and nurture the openness of civil society as an antidote to the creeping submissiveness promoted by authoritarians. Even in today’s America the danger is real, given the current president’s use of lies, denunciations, and threats-behaviors that resemble those used by Hitler and, more recently, by Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Threats to democracy haven’t ended with the defeat of Hitler or the collapse of Communism. Finally, a disaster or emergency provides him with the excuse he needs to take total control of the nation and eradicate personal liberties. Using lies and distortions, along with ridicule, intimidation, and force against his opponents, the tyrant tightens his grip on the country. He then relies on the willingness of an otherwise free people to put themselves under his authority. A would-be tyrant will propose that a mythical era of past national greatness can be revived and that only he can achieve it. His short and pithy book details the methods that demagogues, including Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, have used to degrade and topple democratic institutions. Snyder is a Yale professor of European history.
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