Up until the 2000s, it looks like the autocratization trend line follows the democratization line with a 15-year delay. If that pattern continued, autocratization should have peaked around 2010 and declined ever since.
So what broke the pattern—the internet? The end of the Cold War? Climate change?
In some ways, sure—but having grown up in the Cold War, things certainly feel different now. (For one thing, the party that was once the most rabidly anti-Soviet is now the most pro-Russian, with all the foreign policy realignments that entails.)
If Russia is truly as corrupt as the news implies then that’s on brand for current day Republicans, they’d want to emulate that as much as possible (see: attempts to privatize all public services in the US). Russia isn’t communist anymore so there’s no reason for them to be universally hated by capitalist interests, they got what they wanted.
(For one thing, the party that was once the most rabidly anti-Soviet is now the most pro-Russian, with all the foreign policy realignments that entails.)
because the former KGB agent didn’t change his enemy, just his political stripes.
Up until the 2000s, it looks like the autocratization trend line follows the democratization line with a 15-year delay. If that pattern continued, autocratization should have peaked around 2010 and declined ever since.
So what broke the pattern—the internet? The end of the Cold War? Climate change?
The Cold War never ended.
In some ways, sure—but having grown up in the Cold War, things certainly feel different now. (For one thing, the party that was once the most rabidly anti-Soviet is now the most pro-Russian, with all the foreign policy realignments that entails.)
If Russia is truly as corrupt as the news implies then that’s on brand for current day Republicans, they’d want to emulate that as much as possible (see: attempts to privatize all public services in the US). Russia isn’t communist anymore so there’s no reason for them to be universally hated by capitalist interests, they got what they wanted.
because the former KGB agent didn’t change his enemy, just his political stripes.