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According to pro-democracy institutions, authoritarianism was on the rise globally even before the coronavirus pandemic hit. But experts say the distraction of the crisis has allowed some leaders to indulge their dictatorial impulses without attracting much attention from the people they govern. Nick Schifrin reports and talks to The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum about this dangerous global dynamic.
Judy Woodruff:
There’s an old saying: never let him miss a crisis. And for some world leaders, the crisis pandemic they had been waiting for.
Pro-democracy teams say authoritarianism is already on the rise before COVID-19.
And, as Nick Schifrin tells us, the pandemic has accelerated that trend.
Nick Schifrin:
They marched for democratic values and kept “Free Country, Free Press” posters, but in Hungary the press is getting less and less loose and democracy is falling into an authoritarian slope.
Last month, the editor-in-chief of Hungary’s most-read online news page was fired for covering up government complaints. Almaximum all News Site Index workers are gone.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has described Index as a fake news factory. But COVID has a canopy to expand its attacks and take more power.
And it’s happening elsewhere. An open letter from 500 former world leaders and Nobel laureates warned, COVID-19 increased global authoritarianism that threatens the future of liberal democracy.
Alina Polyakova:
Authoritarian leaders around the world use it to promote much more competitive autocratic problems and to suppress independent voices in civil society.
Nick Schifrin:
Alina Polyakova is the Director of the Centre for European Policy Analysis.
Alina Polyakova:
I think they could have done that, because there would be a lot more attention, a lot more criticism, at a time when we were going through a global pandemic.
Nick Schifrin:
COVID has emboldened would-be dictators. In Russia, during a World War II commemoration parade, police shoved protesters into vans, thanks to a new measure against public assembly. Vladimir Putin won a referendum that extends his power until 2036.
In Egypt, Dr. Hany Bakr was arrested for a Facebook post criticizing the government for sending a medical mask abroad, even though he did not have enough in his own practice. Abdel Fattah El-Sissi’s government has arrested more than a dozen people for criticizing COVID’s official response.
In other countries, opportunism. In Poland, President Andrzej Duda won and won a recent election, despite the EU. I feared it wasn’t fair or fair. The vote was shown through the Carefully selected Supreme Court through Duda.
In Hong Kong, the pro-Beijing legislative council summoned COVID to postpone a September-scheduled vote that purported to lose. Pro-democracy teams claim that more than 60 elections were postponed COVID and that more than 40 countries have limited press freedom.
These leaders argue that ordinary times require ordinary steps, such as final borders, quarantine, and monitoring.
Viktor Orban (via translator):
We have effectively defended our country. Ours is comparable to any other country. And we have done so in democratic settings.
Nick Schifrin:
But many of the new powers expire or have to do with COVID.
In Hungary, Orban withstood the COVID relief budget of his political opponents. Parliament gave him the strength to rule by decree. He declared victory over the virus.
But in this house, there’s a loss. Last month, Lilla Szeleczki’s mother passed away.
Lilla Szeleczki (via translator):
He really misses me. Everybody enjoyed it. She made our favorite dish for us and had us little surprises and gifts. It hurts me a lot that she’s not with us anymore.
Nick Schifrin:
Szeleczki’s mother was suffering from kidney cancer when she sent home to make room for COVID patients.
Orban silenced the press and minimized COVID, which meant that the Hungarians had not gained the data they needed. Szeleczki says his mother’s death could have been prevented and that in Hungary no one is in complete control.
Lilla Szeleczki (via translator):
I think it’s a massive mistake that the boundless force given in the hands of a person.
Nick Schifrin:
Part of the challenge is that COVID came when democracy was already under attack. Freedom House says 2019 is the fourteenth consecutive year of decline in its global freedom index.
To talk about this and how writerism spread COVID, I am accompanied by Anne Applebaum, editor of “The Atlantic”, a historian of Central and Eastern Europe and writer of a new e-book that has just been released, “Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Attraction of Authoritarianism”.
Anne Applebaum, welcome to the NewsHour.
You’ve met a lot of players. And Poland is an example we have just mentioned, Hungary. You have noticed that decades pass from the sale of democracy to the erosion, in some cases, of the rule of law. What happened?
Anne Applebaum:
You have to look country by country for a complete explanation.
But I think you can point out, whether in mature democracies and new democracies, a kind of sadness with democracy. And it’s a cultural sadness. People don’t like how their societies have changed.
And I think we have to acknowledge that there is a part of every society that doesn’t like the cacophony and noise of democracy and the arguments, that doesn’t like the fact that democracies can’t take instant decisions, the way autocracies can.
Nick Schifrin:
With regard to COVID and the emphasis we have just placed on a country, Hungary, and its leader, Viktor Orban, how did Orban take advantage of COVID to take over?
Anne Applebaum:
When the coronavirus arrived in Hungary, Orban used it to illustrate that he was already fully in control of his system.
In other words, he passed a decree, or an order, which said that, from as long as he wanted, it would in fact rule by decree.
And several Hungarians have told me, well, you know, we know it sounds terrible, but, in a way, Orban was just confirming what we already know, that he already works functionally as a dictator, there is no balance. about him, and he was just using the coronavirus excuse to rub that.
Nick Schifrin:
One of the aspects, of course, of Orban’s crackdown is against freedom of the press. And we have seen governments all over the world restrict freedom of the press.
What is the long-term effect of some of these measures?
Anne Applebaum:
The intuition of taking force against the loose press and verifying to control speech and channel it in safe directions, I think, has been with us.
And the coronavirus has just allowed some governments to take advantage of this situation, remembering that for many people, times when they are afraid and caring about their lives are times when they are willing to freedom the industry for their safety.
Nick Schifrin:
Let’s talk about China for a second.
That propaganda apparatus has waged an ideological battle, arguing that their version of communism, their country, their structure is better equipped to deal with this kind of crisis.
Are you involved in this argument being accepted by others around the world?
Anne Applebaum:
The challenge with the Chinese argument is that through its own movements it undermines the crisis and the fact that it was the Chinese government that first denied that the pandemic was dangerous. Therefore, China is not in a smart position to argue that its approach to combating the virus is the best.
But even when you walk away from it, there’s something more appealing. Many of the countries with the most productive virus under control are democracies. They have governments that can create a sense of network and accept as true and get others to behave in a way that reduces the virus.
And so, and there are a number of autocracies, at the same time, that have made Array. So it turns out that the border between who’s good and who’s going is not democracy versus dictatorship. It means doing it more effectively, trust, network and solidarity.
Nick Schifrin:
Finally, President Trump raised the possibility of delaying the U.S. election. Where is America in this story?
Anne Applebaum:
Its aim is to undermine our religion in the electoral procedure itself, so that others do not vote, so that they may stay away, and to doubt the outcome if the result is bad for him.
This is a tactic that is used through authoritaries from all over the world. When they need to undermine people’s confidence in the system, they undermine their religion in voting and in the objective and vote.
We’ve all been convinced for many decades that American democracy is inevitable, it’s like water coming out of the tap, or the air we breathe, that there’s nothing special to do to perpetuate it.
But classes around the world show that democracies are dying. People lose self-confidence. Political parties with undemocratic ideals take from democratic countries.
Our democracy, like any democracy, demands work. This requires reform. This requires renewed commitment. This would possibly require new types of policies. And possibly we should all be much more concerned about politics and think much more seriously about how to survive our democracy than we ever imagined.
Nick Schifrin:
Anne Applebaum.
It is titled “Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Attraction of Authoritarianism.”
Thanks a lot.
Anne Applebaum:
Thank you.
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