The New Despotism

Recommended by Archon Fung, director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government

My private title for John Keane’s book is “what to expect when you’re expecting authoritarianism.” He argues that modern authoritarians rely on a cascade of carrots and sticks that flow down from the despot to ensure loyalty and support more than the jackboots and torture chambers of old. Think of it as a giant pyramid scheme in which the good companies, newspapers, and journalists get carrots, while the bad ones get sticks such as tax audits, investigations, revocation of government benefits, and so on. As we saw last year with Congressional investigations of prominent universities, the pyramid scheme creates a dilemma for leaders: doing good things for your organization that protect your students, employees, and flows of funds — avoiding the politicized sticks and getting the carrots — may be bad for freedom and democracy.