Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

Vladimir Putin (born in 1952) has been the president of Russia from 1999 until the present, with the exception of one mandate, from 2008 to 2012, when he was the prime minister of Russia. Putin served as an officer for the Soviet Union Committee for State Security (KGB). After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, he entered politics, rising through the ranks to become the acting president in 1999, after Boris Yeltsin’s resignation.

Putin’s leadership is widely criticized outside of Russia for his nationalist ideology, crackdown on opposition movements, leaders, and journalists, and military interventions, such as the full-scale war in Ukraine, started in February 2022. As Timothy Snyder details in The Road to Unfreedom, Putin has, over the last two decades, shaped Russia into a highly centralized and oligarchic state, where wealth and political influence are tightly controlled by a small circle loyal to him.

In Autocracy, Inc., Applebaum depicts Putin as one of the primary architects of a global autocratic network. The book explores how Putin’s methods of maintaining control in Russia—through surveillance, control of the media, and elimination of political rivals—have become a blueprint for other authoritarian regimes. Applebaum argues that Putin’s Russia is a core member of a loose international coalition of autocratic states. Putin’s significance in this autocratic network lies in his ability to leverage Russia’s natural resources, military power, and disinformation capabilities to exert influence both regionally and globally, providing a model for other authoritarian leaders who aspire to challenge democratic norms.

Volodymyr Zelensky (born in 1978) is the current president of Ukraine, elected in 2019. As Ukraine is engaged in a defensive war against the aggressor—the neighboring country, Russia—and subject to martial law since 2022, the presidential elections which were supposed to take place in 2023 have been postponed indefinitely, meaning that Zelensky is going to maintain his position as head of state until elections can be organized.

Before entering politics, Zelensky was an actor, best known for his role in a television series, Servant of the People, where he portrayed an ordinary high-school history teacher who unexpectedly becomes the president of Ukraine. Zelensky’s actual political party is likewise called Servant of the People. Zelensky’s message resonated with many Ukrainians who were disillusioned with the country’s entrenched and oligarchic political elite. Despite his lack of political experience, Zelensky became a symbol of hope for those seeking a meaningful transformation of Ukraine’s political class.

Applebaum portrays Zelensky in Autocracy, Inc. as a defender of a democratic Ukraine against autocratic Russia. Ukraine’s struggle against Russian aggression places Zelensky in direct opposition to one of the most prominent autocratic leaders in the world, Vladimir Putin. Moreover, Zelensky’s leadership underscores the resilience required to oppose such a power. Thus, Zelensky plays a crucial role in exposing the failings of autocratic regimes. His leadership is a case study in the global struggle between democratic ideals and autocratic control, and how leaders on the frontlines of this struggle shape the broader geopolitical landscape.

Hugo Chávez (1954­-2013) was the president of Venezuela from 1999 until 2013. He is famous for his populist style of governance and socialist policies. He was the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution movement, named after the 19th-century military figure who led the movement of liberation of Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama, and Bolivia from Spanish imperial rule.

Chávez is known for his program of wealth redistribution and industry nationalization. However, he is also known as a vocal opponent of the US and for his authoritarian rule, which contributed to the erosion of democratic institutions in Venezuela. Under his regime, opposition parties, the media, and the judiciary were increasingly marginalized.

In Autocracy, Inc., Hugo Chávez is a central figure because of the way his leadership style exemplifies a blend of populism and authoritarianism that characterizes modern autocrats. Applebaum discusses Chávez’s ability to maintain a façade of democratic legitimacy while consolidating autocratic power. Chávez’s use of state resources, particularly Venezuela’s oil wealth, to sustain his regime and fund allies abroad serves as an example of how autocrats can leverage national resources to entrench themselves in power.

After Chávez’s death, his successor, Nicolás Maduro, continued many of Chávez’s policies but with even more severe consequences for the Venezuelan economy and political system. For Applebaum, the deterioration of Venezuelan democracy under Chávez and Maduro serves as an example of how autocratic regimes can take hold of a country and export their influence globally. Furthermore, Chávez’s and Maduro’s alliances with other autocratic leaders and their role in fostering global autocratic networks strengthen the book’s central argument about the interconnectedness of modern autocracies.

Evan Mawarire (born in 1977) is a Zimbabwean pastor and activist who rose to prominence in 2016 for his role in leading the #ThisFlag movement, a grassroots campaign against corruption, poor governance, and the economic decline in Zimbabwe.

Mawarire became the leader of this resistance movement as a result of his critical social media posts that decried the disastrous situation in Zimbabwe fostered by the regime of then-President Robert Mugabe. Mawarire’s simplicity, courage, and direct manner of expressing his criticism made his message resonate across a large portion of Zimbabwe’s population, who were equally frustrated with the corruption, repression, and poverty endemic in the country. However, Mawarire faced persecution by Zimbabwe’s ruling elite, including imprisonment, torture, and exile. He is currently a Yale Greenberg World Fellow and holds a Dissident-in-Residence fellowship at John Hopkins’s Stavros Niarchos Institute.

In Autocracy, Inc., Applebaum recounts Mawarire’s story as an example of repression and resilience in the face of autocratic control. Moreover, Mawarire’s story illustrates how autocratic governments have learnt to defeat grassroots pro-democracy campaigns through sustained smear-campaigns. This underscores a key argument in Autocracy, Inc.: That while activists and movements can challenge autocratic systems, these regimes have developed sophisticated means of survival, from the use of state violence to the co-opting of international networks that enable them to maintain power.