Statsskick: diktatur

Diktatorn : från Caesar till Putin

2

Inbunden, Svenska, 2026

269 kr

Sett i ett längre historiskt perspektiv framstår diktaturen inte som ett avvikande inslag, snarare som ett väl beprövat styrelsesätt. Föreställningen om att vår tid skulle vara immun mot auktoritära impulser har gång på gång visat sig illusorisk. Även i dagens västvärld vimlar det av politiker som obekymrat flörtar med härskartekniker vi trodde tillhörde det förgångna.

Historieprofessorn Dick Harrison granskar här hur envälden genom seklerna kunnat rättfärdigas, accepteras och stundtals hyllas. Vilka strukturer och vilken samhällelig jordmån har möjliggjort deras framväxt? Finns en röd tråd från Caesars förödande krigståg via Robespierres blodbestänkta skräckvälde till Stalins »stora terror«?

Genom gestalter som Henrik VIII, Karl IX, Cromwell, Napoleon, Mussolini och Hitler visar Harrison hur autokratiska mönster ständigt återkommer. I Diktatorn ger han oss ett historiskt panorama som gör det möjligt att förstå även de ledare som i dag försöker forma världen efter sin egen vilja – och som därmed påminner oss om att historien aldrig upphör att tala till samtiden.

"Författaren behärskar konsten att göra det svåra begripligt, vilket kräver stor analytisk precision. Tonen är saklig och lättillgänglig. (...) Genom skräckinjagande gestalter som Caesar, Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler och Stalin blir parallellerna till vår samtid tydliga. (...) Boken är lärorik och imponerande i sin omfattning." BTJ

"Det är värdefullt med någon som skriver sakligt och kunnigt om historien och samtidigt talar klarspråk om det som borde vara självklart för alla - att diktatur är en dålig idé både i öst och i väst och att en parlamentarisk demokrati med rättsstat, yttrandefrihet och respekt för andras åsikter är att föredra. Som alla viktiga historiska studier väcker boken tankar om samtiden." Svenska Dagbladet

"...en lättillgänglig och resonerande snabbkurs i ett så brännande ämne av en påläst expert. (...) Dick Harrison påminner oss förtjänstfullt om att de blodiga spåren efter män med alltför stor makt förskräcker." Dagens Nyheter

"En väl utförd historisk undersökning. Det är uppenbart att Harrison kan sitt material." Bokrevyn #10

"Michael Tapper: Diktatorn: Från Caesar till Putin är en exposé över tyranner genom historien och ett brännande aktuellt debattinlägg till demokratins försvar. ( ) Med journalistiskt slipat språkbruk och driv i berättandet gör spränglärde professor Dick Harrison boken lättläst, spännande och underhållande." Sydsvenskan

Londres 38 : en berättelse om Augusto Pinochet, Walther Rauff och rättvisan

AvPhilippe Sands

1

Inbunden, Svenska, 2025

249 kr

Den 16 oktober 1998 arresteras Augusto Pinochet oväntat i London. Åklagaren menar att den forne diktatorns immunitet inte gäller. Händelsen blir en världsnyhet. En av de advokater som kontaktas i ärendet är Philippe Sands, som ska komma att representera Human Rights Watch, efter att han avböjt att bistå Pinochet. Det är startskottet för en undersökning som senare leder Sands till adressen Londres 38 i Santiago. Efter Pinochets kupp 1973 var det en ökänd byggnad – den som fördes dit för förhör återvände sällan. Men spåren leder också till nazisten och krigsförbrytaren Walther Rauff, som flydde till Chile och senare erbjöd juntan sina tjänster. På något sätt hänger allt samman i denna personliga detektivberättelse om den vindlande vägen till en möjlig rättvisa för diktaturens offer.

Autokrati AB : diktatorerna som vill styra världen

AvAnne Applebaum

2

Storpocket, Svenska, 2025

147 kr

Enligt 2024 års demokratirapport från Göteborgs Universitet lever 71% av jordens befolkning i icke-demokratier. För tio år sedan var den siffran 48%.

Den historiska bilden av en autokrati stämmer dåligt överens med vår tid. Numera styrs autokratier av professionella propagandister och sofistikerade, globala nätverk. Till skillnad från militära och politiska allianser kan de här nätverken snabbt anpassa sina relationer så att de obehindrat kan röra sig över ideologiska, geografiska och kulturella gränser. De har alla ett övergripande mål; att göra motstånd mot det demokratiska systemet och på det sättet underminera våra demokratiska värderingar.

Kampen mot denna samhällssyn - som den demokratiska världen oavsiktligt bidragit till att befästa - är ämnet för denna bok.

Autocracy, Inc

The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

AvAnne Applebaum

1

Häftad, Engelska, 2025

144 kr

Skickas

**A Sunday Times Bestseller****An Economist Best Book of the Year**The celebrated historian and journalist uncovers the networks trying to destroy the democratic worldAll of us have in our minds a cartoon image of what an autocratic state looks like, with a bad man at the top. But in the 21st century, that cartoon bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services and professional propagandists. The members of these networks are connected not only within a given country, but among many countries. The corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another. The police in one country can arm, equip, and train the police in another. The propagandists share resources—the troll farms that promote one dictator’s propaganda can also be used to promote the propaganda of another—and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America.Unlike military or political alliances from other times and places, this group doesn’t operate like a bloc, but rather like an agglomeration of companies: Autocracy, Inc. Their relations are not based on values, but are rather transactional, which is why they operate so easily across ideological, geographical, and cultural lines. In truth, they are in full agreement about only one thing: Their dislike of us, the inhabitants of the democratic world, and their desire to see both our political systems and our values undermine.That shared understanding of the world—where it comes from, why it lasts, how it works, how the democratic world has unwittingly helped to consolidate it, and how we can help bring it down—is the subject of this book.

Gulag Archipelago

(Abridged edition)

AvAleksandr Solzhenitsyn

4

Häftad, Engelska, 2018

160 kr

Skickas

Solzhenitsyn spent eleven years in labour camps and in exile.This book is his masterwork, based on his own experiences as well as the testimony of some 200 survivors. A vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of informers and spies and interrogators but also of everyday heroism, it chronicles the story of those who dared to oppose Stalin, and for whom the key to survival lay not in hope but in despair. A thoroughly researched document and a feat of literary and imaginative power, this edition of The Gulag Archipelago was abridged into one volume at the request of the author.'Helped to bring down an empire. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated' Doris Lessing, Sunday Telegraph'Solzhenitsyn’s masterpiece...helped create the world we live in today' Anne ApplebaumWITH AN AFTERWORD BY JORDAN B. PETERSONTHE OFFICIALLY APPROVED ABRIDGEMENT OF THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO VOLUMES I, II & III

Nyhet

The Resilience of the Old Regime

Paths Around Democracy in Europe, 1832-1919

AvDavid Art

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

370 kr

Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar

In The Resilience of the Old Regime, David Art reevaluates the so-called first wave of democratization in Western Europe through the lens of authoritarian resilience. He argues that non-democrats succeeded to a very large degree in managing, diverting, disrupting, and repressing democratic movements until the end of the First World War. This was true both in states political scientists have long considered either full democracies or democratic vanguards (such as the UK and Sweden), as well as in others (such as Germany and Italy) that appeared to be democratizing. He challenges both the Whiggish view that democracy in the West moved progressively forward, and the influential theory that threats of revolution explain democratization. Drawing on extensive historical sources and data, Art recasts European political development from 1832-1919 as a period in which competitive oligarchies and competitive authoritarian regimes predominated.

Autokrati AB : diktatorerna som vill styra världen

AvAnne Applebaum

41

Inbunden, Svenska, 2024

309 kr

Skickas

Enligt 2024 års demokratirapport från Göteborgs Universitet lever 71% av jordens befolkning i icke-demokratier. För tio år sedan var den siffran 48%.

Den historiska bilden av en autokrati stämmer dåligt överens med vår tid. Numera styrs autokratier av professionella propagandister och sofistikerade, globala nätverk. Till skillnad från militära och politiska allianser kan de här nätverken snabbt anpassa sina relationer så att de obehindrat kan röra sig över ideologiska, geografiska och kulturella gränser. De har alla ett övergripande mål; att göra motstånd mot det demokratiska systemet och på det sättet underminera våra demokratiska värderingar.

Kampen mot denna samhällssyn - som den demokratiska världen oavsiktligt bidragit till att befästa - är ämnet för denna bok.

Origins of Totalitarianism

AvHannah Arendt

3

Häftad, Engelska, 2017

160 kr

Skickas

'How could such a book speak so powerfully to our present moment? The short answer is that we, too, live in dark times' Washington PostHannah Arendt's chilling analysis of the conditions that led to the Nazi and Soviet totalitarian regimes is a warning from history about the fragility of freedom, exploring how propaganda, scapegoats, terror and political isolation all aided the slide towards total domination. 'A non-fiction bookend to Nineteen Eighty-Four' The New York Times'The political theorist who wrote about the Nazis and the 'banality of evil' has become a surprise bestseller' Guardian

Autocracy, Inc

The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

AvAnne Applebaum

14

Inbunden, Engelska, 2024

336 kr

Skickas inom 3-6 vardagar

**A Sunday Times Bestseller****An Economist Best Book of the Year**The celebrated historian and journalist uncovers the networks trying to destroy the democratic worldAll of us have in our minds a cartoon image of what an autocratic state looks like, with a bad man at the top. But in the 21st century, that cartoon bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services and professional propagandists. The members of these networks are connected not only within a given country, but among many countries. The corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another. The police in one country can arm, equip, and train the police in another. The propagandists share resources—the troll farms that promote one dictator’s propaganda can also be used to promote the propaganda of another—and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America.Unlike military or political alliances from other times and places, this group doesn’t operate like a bloc, but rather like an agglomeration of companies: Autocracy, Inc. Their relations are not based on values, but are rather transactional, which is why they operate so easily across ideological, geographical, and cultural lines. In truth, they are in full agreement about only one thing: Their dislike of us, the inhabitants of the democratic world, and their desire to see both our political systems and our values undermine.That shared understanding of the world—where it comes from, why it lasts, how it works, how the democratic world has unwittingly helped to consolidate it, and how we can help bring it down—is the subject of this book.

The Origins of Totalitarianism

AvHannah Arendt

Häftad, Engelska, 2024

237 kr

Skickas

Law of Blood

Thinking and Acting as a Nazi

AvJohann Chapoutot

Inbunden, Engelska, 2018

294 kr

Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar

Winner of the Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust ResearchThe scale and the depth of Nazi brutality seem to defy understanding. What could drive people to fight, kill, and destroy with such ruthless ambition? Observers and historians have offered countless explanations since the 1930s. According to Johann Chapoutot, we need to understand better how the Nazis explained it themselves. We need a clearer view, in particular, of how they were steeped in and spread the idea that history gave them no choice: it was either kill or die.Chapoutot, one of France’s leading historians, spent years immersing himself in the texts and images that reflected and shaped the mental world of Nazi ideologues, and that the Nazis disseminated to the German public. The party had no official ur-text of ideology, values, and history. But a clear narrative emerges from the myriad works of intellectuals, apparatchiks, journalists, and movie-makers that Chapoutot explores.The story went like this: In the ancient world, the Nordic-German race lived in harmony with the laws of nature. But since Late Antiquity, corrupt foreign norms and values—Jewish values in particular—had alienated Germany from itself and from all that was natural. The time had come, under the Nazis, to return to the fundamental law of blood. Germany must fight, conquer, and procreate, or perish. History did not concern itself with right and wrong, only brute necessity. A remarkable work of scholarship and insight, The Law of Blood recreates the chilling ideas and outlook that would cost millions their lives.

How Fascism Works

The Politics of Us and Them

AvJason Stanley

1

Häftad, Engelska, 2020

197 kr

Skickas

Gulag Archipelago

50th Anniversary Abridged Edition

AvAleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Inbunden, Engelska, 2023

255 kr

Skickas

'[The Gulag Archipelago] helped to bring down an empire. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated' Doris Lessing, Sunday TelegraphWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY NATALIA SOLZHENITSYNA vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of informers and spies and interrogators but also of everyday heroism, The Gulag Archipelago is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's grand masterwork. Based on the testimony of some 200 survivors, and on the recollection of Solzhenitsyn's own eleven years in labour camps and exile, it chronicles the story of those at the heart of the Soviet Union who opposed Stalin, and for whom the key to survival lay not in hope but in despair.A thoroughly researched document and a feat of literary and imaginative power, this edition of The Gulag Archipelago was abridged into one volume at the author's wish and with his full co-operation.'Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece...The Gulag Archipelago helped create the world we live in today' Anne ApplebaumTHE OFFICIALLY APPROVED ABRIDGEMENT OF THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO VOLUMES I, II & III

Nyhet

Chain of Ideas

Great Replacement Theory and the Origins of Our Authoritarian Age

AvIbram X. Kendi

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

266 kr

Skickas

A revelatory account of the racist conspiracy theory that now pervades global politics – from the prize-winning author of the million-copy bestseller How To Be an Antiracist‘An essential framework for parsing current events . . . meticulously researched . . . worthwhile and accessible . . . also offers a modicum of hope’ Arwa Mahdawi, GuardianThroughout the world, authoritarian movements are radically reshaping our politics and our lives. At the heart of them all lies ‘great replacement theory’, which insists that peoples of colour, migrants and minorities are being deliberately empowered to displace white majorities.In Chain of Ideas, Ibram X. Kendi shows how this conspiracy theory has mutated from the extremist fringe into a global ideology, embraced by leaders as varied as Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orbán, Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro, Nigel Farage, Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump. He traces its historic roots in slavery, segregation, colonialism and Nazism, and shows how these age-old prejudices have been dressed in new language for a digital age.But this is not a book about extremists on the margins. From Anders Breivik’s massacre to the chants of the Charlottesville marchers, from Brexit slogans to the Christchurch shooting, Kendi shows how these ideas have crossed borders, inspired terror and are now re-shaping parties of government. Chain of Ideas is a penetrating history of how reactionary ideas have been repackaged as common sense, and how they shape the globe today.PRAISE FOR IBRAM X. KENDI:'The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind' The New York Times on How To Be an Antiracist'One of the pre-eminent intellectuals on race' Guardian'A kind, dignified, preternaturally wise teacher' GQ'One of today’s most visible and sought-after public intellectuals' Wall Street Journal'One of the US’s most respected scholars of race and history' Afua Hirsch'[Kendi] is not a historian fearful of upsetting orthodoxies or questioning fixed reputations' David Olusoga

Nazi Mind

Twelve Warnings From History

AvLaurence Rees

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

122 kr

Skickas

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'I will recommend it to everyone' Alastair Campbell'World-renowned historian Laurence Rees lays out a past that is also eerily a cautionary tale for our future if we are not careful' Anthony Scaramucci'There are lots of moments when you can’t help but have a shudder through the spine . . . a really novel, interesting book.' Lewis Goodall, The News Agents podcast___________________________________How could the Nazis have committed the crimes they did?Why did they willingly – often enthusiastically – oversee mass murder?How did ordinary Germans tolerate the removal of Jewish people?And how do we ensure it never happens again?Bestselling author Laurence Rees combines history and the latest psychological research to help answer the most perplexing questions surrounding the Holocaust and the Nazi state. Through the lens of ‘twelve warnings’ – from talk about ‘them’ and ‘us’ to the escalation of racism – Rees delves into the darkness to explain how and why people were capable of such horrors.Using previously unpublished testimony from former Nazis and cutting-edge psychological discoveries, THE NAZI MIND is a revelatory new way of understanding the most appalling crimes of the 20th century that highlights the warning signs we need to look out for in leaders today.___________________________________'A brilliant piece of work: learned, compelling and frankly terrifying' James Holland, Daily Telegraph'[A] superb, complex study' Christopher Hart, Daily Mail‘Enthralling and chilling . . . compulsive reading' Robert McCrum, Independent

Dark Shadows

Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan

AvJoanna Lillis

Häftad, Engelska, 2022

229 kr

Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar

Dark Shadows is a compelling portrait of Kazakhstan, a country that is little known in the West. Strategically located in the heart of Central Asia, sandwiched between Vladimir Putin’s Russia, its former colonial ruler, and Xi Jinping’s China, this vast oil-rich state is carving out its place in the world as it contends with its own complex past and present. Journalist Joanna Lillis paints a vibrant picture of this emerging nation through vivid reportage based on 17 years of on-the-ground coverage, and travels across the length and breadth of this enigmatic country that lies along the ancient Silk Road and at the geopolitical and cultural crossroads where East meets West.Featuring tales of murder and abduction, intrigue and betrayal, extortion and corruption, this book explores how a president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, transformed himself into a potentate and the economically-struggling state he inherited at the fall of the USSR into a swaggering 21st-century monocracy. A colourful cast of characters brings the politics to life: from strutting oligarchs to sleeping villagers, from principled politicians to striking oilmen, from crusading journalists to courageous campaigners. This new edition features two additional chapters covering the aftermath of Nazarbayev's fall from power in 2019; the Chinese government's repressions against the Kazakhs of Xinjiang as part of its crackdown on Muslim minorities; and an Afterword reflecting on the tumultuous events of January 2022 in Almaty.Traversing dust-blown deserts and majestic mountains, taking in glitzy cities and dystopian landscapes, Dark Shadows conjures up Kazakhstan as a living, breathing place, full of extraordinary people living extraordinary lives.

SA Cleans Up!

AvHeinz Lohmann

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

334 kr

Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar

Occult Secrets Of The Third Reich

AvSean Casteel,Tim Swartz

Häftad, Engelska, 2017

344 kr

Skickas inom 3-6 vardagar

On Tyranny

Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

AvTimothy Snyder

11

Häftad, Engelska, 2017

116 kr

Skickas

**NEW YORK TIMES #1 BESTSELLER **THE BOOK TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND WHY DEMOCRACY IS FAILING IN 2025‘The most coherent manifesto on confronting Trump’ New StatesmanIn the twentieth century, European democracies collapsed into fascism, Nazism and communism. These were movements in which a leader or a party claimed to give voice to the people, promised to protect them from global existential threats, and rejected reason in favour of myth.European history shows us that societies can break, democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, and ordinary people can find themselves in unimaginable circumstances.Today, we are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to totalitarianism in the twentieth century. But when the political order seems imperilled, our advantage is that we can learn from their experience to resist the advance of tyranny.'These 128 pages are a brief primer in every important thing we might have learned from the history of the last century, and all that we appear to have forgotten' Observer‘Clarifying and unnerving… a memorable work that is grounded in history yet imbued with the fierce urgency of what now.’ Washington Post'Please read this book. So smart, so timely.' George Saunders

Me the People

How Populism Transforms Democracy

AvNadia Urbinati

Inbunden, Engelska, 2019

450 kr

Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar

A timely and incisive assessment of what the success of populism means for democracy.Populist movements have recently appeared in nearly every democracy around the world. Yet our grasp of this disruptive political phenomenon remains woefully inadequate. Politicians of all stripes appeal to the interests of the people, and every opposition party campaigns against the current establishment. What, then, distinguishes populism from run-of-the-mill democratic politics? And why should we be concerned by its rise?In Me the People, Nadia Urbinati argues that populism should be regarded as a new form of representative government, one based on a direct relationship between the leader and those the leader defines as the “good” or “right” people. Populist leaders claim to speak to and for the people without the need for intermediaries—in particular, political parties and independent media—whom they blame for betraying the interests of the ordinary many. Urbinati shows that, while populist governments remain importantly distinct from dictatorial or fascist regimes, their dependence on the will of the leader, along with their willingness to exclude the interests of those deemed outside the bounds of the “good” or “right” people, stretches constitutional democracy to its limits and opens a pathway to authoritarianism.Weaving together theoretical analysis, the history of political thought, and current affairs, Me the People presents an original and illuminating account of populism and its relation to democracy.

Die Achse der Autokraten

AvAnne Applebaum

Inbunden, Tyska, 2024

287 kr

Skickas inom 3-6 vardagar

Nyhet

Landschaft ohne Zeugen

AvInes Geipel

Inbunden, Tyska, 2026

284 kr

Skickas inom 3-6 vardagar

Franco : diktator på livstid

AvRoger Älmeberg

Häftad, Svenska, 2020

289 kr

Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar

Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde - eller Franco - var en av Europas mest framgångsrika diktatorer under modern tid. Den 1 april 1939 förklarade sig Franco som segrare i inbördeskriget. Sedan behöll han makten till sin död den 20 november 1975.Men vem var denne blyge general som tyckte om fotboll och film och avskydde frimurare, socialister, kommunister och liberaler? Hur kunde han komma till makten och hur kunde han stanna där så länge?I denna första biografi om Franco på svenska redogör författaren Roger Älmeberg för hur Spaniens komplicerade historia lade grunden till den långa diktaturen. För att förstå Francos tid vid makten måste man också känna till kolonialkrigen i dåvarande Spanska Marocko - där Franco visade både skicklighet och förslagenhet och snabbt steg i graderna -, Primo de Riveras diktatur på 1920-talet, republiken och inbördeskriget. De många och ofta blodiga uppgörelserna under 1900-talet mellan katoliker, fascister, separatister och anarkister banade på många sätt väg för diktaturen och visar att berättelsen om Franco också på många sätt är berättelsen om det moderna Spanien.Roger Älmeberg har varit reporter, producent och projektledare på Sveriges Television, kanalchef inom Sveriges Radio samt chefredaktör på tidskriften Från riksdag till departement. Han har även en fil.kand. i modern politisk historia och ekonomisk historia.

Everyday Politics in Russia

From Resentment to Resistance

AvJeremy Morris

Häftad, Engelska, 2025

294 kr

Skickas inom 3-6 vardagar

What do Russians really want? Do they want authoritarianism and are they prepared to go along with a war of conquest and destruction? Or do they want something else?A landmark contribution to the field, Morris is the only social researcher to have carried out fieldwork in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, engaging with communities in Moscow, regional cities, as well as rural areas to bring perspectives on Russian everyday lives that are now entirely inaccessible to the West. Everyday Politics in Russia uses the lens of micropolitics, defined not as politics in miniature but instead as taking seriously the political content of people’s normal lives revealed in their practices, interactions and discussions. Based on decades-long interactions with people from a diverse cross-section of society in Russia – from security service officers to factory workers, from unemployed young men to citizen journalists and activists, this is the most comprehensive insight to date into the complexity of Russian attitudes toward war, their government and the post-1991 political trajectory.

Spin Dictators

The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century

AvDaniel Treisman,Sergei Guriev

Inbunden, Engelska, 2022

244 kr

Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar

A New Yorker Best Book of the YearA Foreign Affairs Best Book of the YearAn Atlantic Best Book of the YearA Financial Times Best Politics Book of the YearHow a new breed of dictators holds power by manipulating information and faking democracyHitler, Stalin, and Mao ruled through violence, fear, and ideology. But in recent decades a new breed of media-savvy strongmen has been redesigning authoritarian rule for a more sophisticated, globally connected world. In place of overt, mass repression, rulers such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Viktor Orbán control their citizens by distorting information and simulating democratic procedures. Like spin doctors in democracies, they spin the news to engineer support. Uncovering this new brand of authoritarianism, Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman explain the rise of such “spin dictators,” describing how they emerge and operate, the new threats they pose, and how democracies should respond.Spin Dictators traces how leaders such as Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew and Peru’s Alberto Fujimori pioneered less violent, more covert, and more effective methods of monopolizing power. They cultivated an image of competence, concealed censorship, and used democratic institutions to undermine democracy, all while increasing international engagement for financial and reputational benefits. The book reveals why most of today’s authoritarians are spin dictators—and how they differ from the remaining “fear dictators” such as Kim Jong-un and Bashar al-Assad, as well as from masters of high-tech repression like Xi Jinping.Offering incisive portraits of today’s authoritarian leaders, Spin Dictators explains some of the great political puzzles of our time—from how dictators can survive in an age of growing modernity to the disturbing convergence and mutual sympathy between dictators and populists like Donald Trump.

Power of the Powerless

AvVáclav Havel

Häftad, Engelska, 2018

119 kr

Skickas

Václav Havel’s remarkable and rousing essay on the tyranny of apathy, with a new introduction by Timothy Snyder Cowed by life under Communist Party rule, a greengrocer hangs a placard in their shop window: Workers of the world, unite! Is it a sign of the grocer’s unerring ideology? Or a symbol of the lies we perform to protect ourselves?Written in 1978, Václav Havel’s meditation on political dissent – the rituals of its suppression, and the sparks that re-ignite it – would prove the guiding manifesto for uniting Solidarity movements across the Soviet Union. A portrait of activism in the face of falsehood and intimidation, The Power of the Powerless remains a rousing call against the allure of apathy.'Havel’s diagnosis of political pathologies has a special resonance in the age of Trump' Pankaj Mishra

Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder

AvMichael McFaul

Inbunden, Engelska, 2025

352 kr

Skickas inom 3-6 vardagar

The Reactionary Spirit

How America's Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World

AvZack Beauchamp

Inbunden, Engelska, 2024

290 kr

Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar

With keen and original insight, Vox journalist Zack Beauchamp traces how a reactionary antidemocratic ethos born and bred in America has come to infect democracies around the worldThere is a fundamental contradiction at the heart of American politics that has endured since our nation's birth. The defining ideals of democracy and liberty for everyone have always existed uneasily alongside realities of slavery, widespread disenfranchisement, and other grave impediments to true democracy. How has this paradox survived for so long in the face of America's foundational claim of liberty and justice for all?In The Reactionary Spirit, Zack Beauchamp explains that this tension is in fact an example of a phenomenon intrinsic to the project of democracy, what he calls the reactionary spirit: as strides towards true democracy are made, there is always a faction that reacts by seeking to undermine them and thereby resist change. The adoption of democratic rhetoric cleverly belies authoritarian ends-a development that is increasingly prevalent today, both at home and abroad.Brilliantly combining political history and reportage, Beauchamp reveals how the United States was the birthplace of this strange and harrowing authoritarian style, and why we're now seeing its evolution in diverse nations including Hungary, Israel, and India. These countries in turn provide blueprints for the reactionary spirit domestically, as with Florida governor Ron DeSantis taking pages from Hungarian president Viktor Orbán's anti-LGBT legislative playbook.The Reactionary Spirit paints a vivid, alarming picture that illuminates not only what's happening to democracy globally, but also what we must do to protect it-while we still can.

Psychology of Totalitarianism

AvMattias Desmet

9

Inbunden, Engelska, 2022

213 kr

Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar

‘The most important book of 2022.’ Dr. Robert MaloneDesmet’s work on mass formation theory was brought to the world’s attention on The Joe Rogan Experience and in major alternative news outlets around the globe. Read this book to get beyond the sound bites!In The Psychology of Totalitarianism, world-renowned Professor of Clinical Psychology Mattias Desmet deconstructs the societal conditions that allow collective hypnosis to take hold. By analysing the global pandemic, he identifies the phenomenon of ‘mass formation’ and illustrates how humanity is being forcibly,unconsciously led into a reality of technocratic totalitarianism, which aggressively excludes alternative views and relies on destructive groupthink, vilifying non-conformist thought as ‘dissident.’Building on Hannah Arendt’s essential work on totalitarianism, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Desmet offers a sharp critique of the cultural ‘groupthink’ that existed pre-pandemic but has steadily and inexorably advanced during the Covid crisis. He cautions against the dangers of our current societal landscape, media consumption, and reliance on manipulative technologies, offering simple solutions – both individual and collective – to prevent the willing sacrifice of our ability to think critically. The Psychology of Totalitarianism serves as an indispensable and fundamental guide to understanding this key moment in history.‘Mattias Desmet's [theory of mass formation hypnosis] is great. . . . Once I kind of started to look for it, I saw it everywhere.’ Eric Clapton

Why I Am Not a Liberal - Imperium Press (Studies in Reaction)

AvJonathan Bowden

Häftad, Engelska, 2020

114 kr

Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar