Autocracy
Chapter 2 - Society
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Welcome to the autocracy page
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Autocracy, while it is contrasted with democracy, is a form of government in which absolute power is held by the head of state and government, known as an autocrat. It includes some forms of monarchy and all forms of dictatorship.
(It should be clear that the author of Business Acumen does not endorse autocracy in any of its forms.)
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Core ideas
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Autocracy
Three-quarters of the world's population lives under an autocratic regime.
This is due to growing socio-economic inequality between population groups, which was exacerbated by two major financial crises and the aftershocks of the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, climate change and many wars have created a certain fear for the future, reminiscent of the 1930s. People living under an autocratic regime lack:
Freedom of expression
Freedom of expression also includes freedom of education. It is also suppressed by threatening political opponents.
Freedom of the press
Freedom of the press is on par with freedom of expression. And freedom of expression is indeed under threat. Government members, who also have an exemplary function, are constantly trying to undermine the credibility of established media. The vast majority of the population in the West gets their news from social media. We know that they are full of lies and disinformation. Plus, everything is pre-formed by algorithms that determine what people want to hear.
Free elections
You can have free and fair elections, but it is of little use if elected officials no longer have any power. When the reach of the executive power is expanded, and the legislative power does nothing to counter it, that is an essential characteristic of an electoral autocracy. There is still a popular representation on paper, but it no longer functions as a brake on the president. Which makes the people's vote – although perhaps cast in free elections – toothless.
Separation of powers and free jurisdiction
Sowing doubt clearly initiates the erosion of the judiciary. This also happens by labelling judges as 'left-wing radical lunatics' or by bluntly stating that courts may not curtail the executive power.
A functioning civil society
In a normal democracy, a government has social institutions such as trade unions, patient federations, and SME associations as important discussion partners.
The principle of equality and non-discrimination
The way big money influences political campaigns creates an uneven playing field.
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| Content source |
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| Staffan Lindberg - V-Dem |
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Deep dive
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Sponsored by the Koch Family
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The Koch brothers indicated that they intended to raise almost $880 million in support of candidates in the 2016 elections, and have given more than $100 million to conservative and libertarian policy and advocacy groups in the United States, including The Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute, and more recently Americans for Prosperity.
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The Heritage Foundation
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| Snippits from the 2025 THF website |
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| The Conservative Vision of Education
Now is the time to go on offense in offering a compelling vision about the truth of the human person. Most parents want that for their children, and our nation needs it. America needs students who know and love the good, the true, and the beautiful. It needs students who form real friendships, intellectual friendships, moral friendships. It needs students who love their country, their home, and who are ready to serve—to serve neighbor, country, and God. . Human Nature, Technology, and the Progress Dilemma Especially as they come unmoored from the Christian framework, left-wing movements tend to move beyond efforts to redress new asymmetries toward waging war on natural difference. A new bioegalitarianism is emerging that seeks to replace human nature with a formless equality even at the expense of our humanity itself, replacing imago dei (the Christian view of mankind as created in the image of God) with imago DEI (a protean plurality governed only by its willingness to see the dissolution of all difference as a good in its own right). But a tech-curious Right can walk this path in continued reference to human excellence, ordered always to an acknowledgement, valorization, and defense of the durability, sanctity, and indispensability of imago dei. . Reason, Revelation, and Identity Politics By refusing to take seriously the questions that underlie modern rationality, the West continues to undermine itself, to increase its own doubting and internal self-loathing. It makes its politics, its education, and its societies welcoming arenas for the atheism of unreason as mere subjectivity becomes the arbiter of what is ethical and good for man to do. The pathologies of reason and religion with which is plagued should not then be surprising. But the path forward is really the path of recovery of philosophical realism, the rebuilding of biblical faith, and the reawakening of love for constitutional republics. . Citizens’ Right to Self-Defense Conservatives must remember that the Constitution of the United States and the rights reflected therein are rights bestowed on citizens not by the grace of government, but by the hand of God and the essence of nature. The responsibility is not on citizens to prove they need or deserve these rights and freedoms, which, by default, are theirs to enjoy. Rather, the onus is—and should remain—on government to prove, under the strictest of scrutiny, that any curtailment of a constitutionally guaranteed right is for the overall public good without any undue impact on the ability of individual citizens to preserve their life, liberty and property as they see fit. |
| https://www.heritage.org/ |
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Project 2025
Part of The Heritage Foundation
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| Snippits from the 2025 Project 2025 website |
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Project 2025 is a historic movement, brought together by over 100 respected organizations from across the conservative movement, to take down the Deep State and return the government to the people. Its Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, published in April 2023, is a product of more than 400 scholars and policy experts from around the country. The book offers a menu of policy suggestions to meet our country’s deepest challenges and put America back on track, including:
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| https://www.project2025.org/ |
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The Cato Institute
| Snippits from the 2025 Cato Institute website |
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| For more than 40 years, Cato has led the charge for liberty in our nation and around the world. The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization—or think tank—that creates a presence for and promotes libertarian ideas in policy debates. Our mission is to keep the principles, ideas, and moral case for liberty alive for future generations, while moving public policy in the direction of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace.
Since 1977, the Cato Institute has been one of the most effective voices in Washington, DC, advocating individual liberty. . Our vision is a free and open society in which liberty allows every individual to pursue a life of prosperity and meaning in peace. . The mission of the Cato Institute is to keep the principles, ideas, and moral case for liberty alive for future generations while moving public policy in the direction of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. .
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| https://www.cato.org/ |
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Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
| Snippits from the 2025 Manhattan Institute website |
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| Economics
We promote prosperity and upward mobility through the advancement of economic freedom, fiscal responsibility, and entrepreneurial innovation. . Culture We seek to overcome America's cultural divides by offering constructive alternatives to identity politics.(Onward, Christian Americans) . Governance We defend equality before the law and help improve the quality of governance by promoting transparency, accountability, and evidence-based reforms. (The Court Should Bless Religious Charters) . Public Safety We advance creative, evidence-based policy ideas for better policing, public safety, and criminal justice. (Nationwide, headlines describe a spectrum of transgendered, nonbinary, and other “gender non-conforming” variations of criminal offenders.) |
| https://manhattan.institute/ |
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Americans for Prosperity
| Snippits from the 2025 Americans for Prosperity website |
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| Economic Progress
America is in the middle of an economic crisis. Unsustainable government spending and burdensome regulations have driven up inflation and resulted in high food, energy, and housing costs — limiting the economic progress of nearly every American. That’s why we're working to reduce wasteful spending, unleash energy abundance, and empower workers to prove prosperity is still possible and together we can reignite the American Dream. Sensible solutions for the American economy. Prosperity is Possible when we support policies that promote a reliable, abundant, and affordable energy supply, without undue government interference. This includes:
. Free Speech Every American should have the power to speak, think, and act as they see fit, without hindrance from the government — as long as they’re not violating the rights of others. Yet today we too often see resistance toward a culture of free expression. We need to protect the First Amendment! . Immigration America needs secure borders and a functioning immigration system. Congress’ decades-long failure to strengthen our border and streamline lawful migration pathways has created a system that undermines the rule of law and fails to meet the needs of American families, workers, and entrepreneurs. We’re focused on permanent border security solutions and immigration policies for a more effective and fair system. |
| https://americansforprosperity.org/ |
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Religiously inspired
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The Heartland Institute
| Snippits from the 2025 Stopping Socialism website |
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| Why ‘Democratic,’ European-Style Socialism Is Also Extremely Immoral. Rather than thinking about “socialist nations” versus “capitalist countries,” it makes far more sense when evaluating modern European-style socialist nations to consider the morality of specific socialist government programs. Upon doing so, it will become evident that the same moral issues facing Marx’s pure communist-socialism plague all modern countries with socialist programs, which for our purposes can be defined as programs whose primary purpose is to socialize an industry through collective property ownership.
In a country in which the entire health insurance industry is socialized and the government pays for abortion and contraception, all taxpayers are required to pay for these services/products, including those taxpayers who believe such activities are extremely immoral. In Roman Catholicism, both abortion and nearly all forms of contraception are forbidden by the Church’s Magisterium—the Roman Catholic Church’s authority on faith and moral issues. Those who knowingly and willingly use contraception, have an abortion, or encourage others to engage in these activities despite knowing such actions are considered “grave sins” are committing a “mortal sin”—a sin so severe that it’s said to make shipwreck of a person’s soul. |
| https://stoppingsocialism.com/ |
| https://heartland.org/ |
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ADF
| ADF (Alliance Defending Freedom) International |
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| “We envision a world where all are free to live and speak the truth, where the inherent dignity of every person is championed and all life is valued, where marriage, families, and communities thrive, and the good news of the Christian message resounds across the globe.” ADF International advances the God-given right to live and speak the truth. |
| https://adfinternational.org/ |
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NRx (the neo-reactionary movement)
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Currently (2025), an autocratic movement has emerged in the USA.
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Dark Enlightenment
The neo-reactionary movement, also known as the Dark Enlightenment, believes that democracy is a mistake and that equality is not a desirable goal. Dark Enlightenment critiques modern liberalism and democracy, advocating for hierarchical governance rooted in tradition and technology.
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Accelerationism
Accelerationism seeks rapid systemic change through intensified capitalism and technology.
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Neo-reactionary tactics
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Matrix Red Pil
The ‘red pill’ metaphor from The Matrix has also become a powerful symbol within NRx ideology, representing an ‘awakening’ to the supposed truth that democratic values are illusory, concealing an underlying superiority of authoritarian rule. For NRx proponents, the democratic emphasis on equality and accountability is not merely flawed but fundamentally deceptive, masking a natural hierarchy that authoritarian governance could better serve. The red pill is a gateway to NRx’s worldview, which trivializes democracy and elevates authoritarianism, replacing civic engagement with loyalty to an elite authority. This metaphor has helped NRx thinkers recruit followers by presenting an authoritarian worldview as a path to enlightenment.
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The rise of mainstream figures like Vance, who endorse or tacitly support NRx principles, poses serious threats to democratic society. As NRx ideas infiltrate mainstream politics, they introduce governance models fundamentally opposing democracy. This influence risks transforming urban spaces from shared, public environments into libertecture-inspired zones designed to serve a privileged elite, leaving the majority to navigate a landscape stripped of public services and collective resources. In a world already grappling with critical issues like climate change, economic inequality and social fragmentation, NRx’s emphasis on loyalty-driven governance and individual autonomy represents a dangerous divergence from democratic values and civic responsibility. The increasing influence of figures like Vance, Yarvin, Thiel and Musk (who also claims to have been ‘red-pilled’) signals a shift in American politics that could weaken the foundations of democratic life, replacing them with a structure where wealth and power determine societal roles, undermining the collective principles that have traditionally supported democratic society.
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RAGE, a current (2025) tactics in the USA
R.A.G.E (Retire All Govt Employees) goal is to make government incapable of operating and to replace government with private corporations.
- To eliminate elections because they are "obsolete"
- To use distraction and chaos to prevent public resistance
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European conservatives
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Mathias Corvinus Collegium
| Snippits from the 2025 MCC website |
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| The survival of the family depends on the restoration of adult authorityDuring the past fifty years, the authoritative status of the family has come under sustained attack by a coalition of social engineers, therapeutic and so-called caring professionals, academics and supporters of identity politics. The phrase ‘war against the family’ used by the sociologist Brigitte Berger captures an important development that emerged in the 1970s and remains in play to this day (1). The tendency to devalue the moral status of the conventional family and its norms enjoys a formidable cultural valuation. It is also widely supported by academic experts and policymakers directing family affairs. In mainstream academic literature and related policy documents, finding an unambiguous positive affirmation for the traditional nuclear family is difficult.
Brigitte Berger has identified six important features that characterise family life in different societies. These are:
. Patriotic Populism: what does it offer democracy In Europe the success of patriotic populist parties has had a huge impact on the political agenda. Whether on immigration or the Green Deal the pressure from populist movements has forced the mainstream centrist political establishment to backtrack. In many of the EU’s nation states, citizens can now vote for and support a serious patriotic political alternative. |
| https://brussels.mcc.hu/ |
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The philosophical inspiration of the neo-reactionary movement
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David Hume (1711 - 1776)
A Treatise on Human Nature (1739-40): “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”
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Friedrich Hayek (1899 - 1992)
He made fundamental contributions to political theory, psychology, and economics. Hayek was the best-known advocate of what is now called Austrian economics. Economic analysis is universally applicable, and the appropriate unit of analysis is man and his choices. These choices are determined by individual subjective preferences and the margin on which decisions are made. The logic of choice is essential to developing a universally valid economic theory. Many of the ideas of the leading mid-twentieth-century Austrian economists are rooted in the ideas of classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Hume.
His basic argument was that government control of our economic lives amounts to totalitarianism. “Economic control is not merely control of a sector of human life which can be separated from the rest,” he wrote, “it is the control of the means for all our ends.”
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Ayn Rand (1905 – 1982)
For Rand, egoism is a moral virtue. According to her, altruism makes one passive. After all, whoever accepts help subjects himself to what another wishes to give and does nothing himself. Empathy is at the expense of creativity and means the end of a prosperous society. Whoever takes responsibility for himself takes responsibility for society. Only a society of proud individuals who pursue happiness and prefer reason to false sentiment is just and harmonious.
Ayn Rand's 1943 novel The Fountainhead is about the struggle between the individual and the collective—a struggle that does not take place in the political arena but in the soul of man. The main character, Howard Roark, is larger than life. He is a passionate, brilliant architect who pursues his dream and refuses to conform to the demands of mediocrity.
He sets himself apart from the "second-handers," who do not have their ideas but imitate others. His individuality contrasts with the herd mentality. That is also typical of Rand. As a refugee from the Soviet Union, she always opposed any form of collectivity. She sees everything that restricts the free individual as oppressive. Roark is her ideal person.
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Dark Enlightenment
At the core of both Dark Enlightenment and accelerationism is a fundamental rejection of Enlightenment values—democracy, equality, and humanism. British philosopher Nick Land, who first articulated the Dark Enlightenment, critiques liberal democracy as a failing system that fosters mediocrity, inefficiency, and social decay. Nick Land and his followers advocate for a return to hierarchical governance, where power is concentrated in the hands of a technological elite rather than dispersed through democratic institutions.
He views democratic and egalitarian policies as only slowing down acceleration and the techno-capital singularity, stating, "Beside the speed machine, or industrial capitalism, there is an ever more perfectly weighted decelerator. Comically, the fabrication of this braking mechanism is proclaimed as progress.
Land argues that democracy, emphasising equality and accountability, impedes technological and social progress, which he believes should be led by an elite few. For Land, democratic values like fairness and equality are outdated obstacles to innovation, and he advocates for a governance model where decision-making authority is concentrated among intellectual and technological elites. His views align closely with Yarvin’s, promoting a society governed by those deemed most capable, with little regard for public input or accountability.
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Accelerationism
Accelerationism is a political and social theory advocating intensifying capitalist growth, technological development, and systemic change to hasten the collapse of existing structures and pave the way for radical transformation.
The theory builds on the idea that capitalism has inherent contradictions that will eventually lead to its collapse. Accelerationists propose speeding up these processes to reach this endpoint sooner. Nick Land describes acceleration as a "transcendental" force driving humanity toward an "absolute horizon," often associated with the singularity - a point where technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible.
- Right-Wing Accelerationism influenced by thinkers like Nick Land, embraces the destabilizing effects of capitalism and technology to create a new hierarchical or technocratic order
Nick Land takes its cue from Karl Marxː
- But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade. (Karl Marx, fragment of his 1848 speech "On the Question of Free Trade")
Land has continually praised China's economic policy as accelerationist. He moved to Shanghai and worked as a journalist, writing material characterized as pro-government propaganda. He also spoke highly of Deng Xiaoping and Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, calling Lee an "autocratic enabler of freedom."
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- Left-Wing Accelerationism seeks to leverage technological progress and capitalism's contradictions to transition toward a post-capitalist society, often emphasizing egalitarian outcomes
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| (fragments of) ACCELERATE MANIFESTO for an Accelerationist Politics - by Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek - 14 May 2013 |
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| 2. Most significant is the breakdown of the planetary climatic system. In time, this threatens the continued existence of the present global human population. Though this is the most critical of the threats which face humanity, a series of lesser but potentially equally destabilising problems exist alongside and intersect with it. Terminal resource depletion, especially in water and energy reserves, offers the prospect of mass starvation, collapsing economic paradigms, and new hot and cold wars. Continued financial crisis has led governments to embrace the paralyzing death spiral policies of austerity, privatisation of social welfare services, mass unemployment, and stagnating wages. Increasing automation in production processes including ‘intellectual labour’ is evidence of the secular crisis of capitalism, soon to render it incapable of maintaining current standards of living for even the former middle classes of the global north.
13. The overwhelming privileging of democracy-as-process needs to be left behind. The fetishisation of openness, horizontality, and inclusion of much of today’s ‘radical’ left set the stage for ineffectiveness. Secrecy, verticality, and exclusion all have their place as well in effective political action (though not, of course, an exclusive one). 14. Democracy cannot be defined simply by its means — not via voting, discussion, or general assemblies. Real democracy must be defined by its goal — collective self-mastery. This is a project which must align politics with the legacy of the Enlightenment, to the extent that it is only through harnessing our ability to understand ourselves and our world better (our social, technical, economic, psychological world) that we can come to rule ourselves. We need to posit a collectively controlled legitimate vertical authority in addition to distributed horizontal forms of sociality, to avoid becoming the slaves of either a tyrannical totalitarian centralism or a capricious emergent order beyond our control. The command of The Plan must be married to the improvised order of The Network. |
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Curtis Yarvin
Yarvin conceived the concept of 'The Cathedral,' a term he uses to describe what he perceives as an informal alliance between academia, the media and government. According to Yarvin, these institutions work together to advance progressive ideologies while suppressing dissenting views. Yarvin's critique extends beyond accusations of institutional bias, positioning The Cathedral as a powerful ideological machine that maintains its influence by perpetuating a self-reinforcing 'progressive orthodoxy.' By framing democracy as an inherently coercive force that stifles intellectual and social freedom, Yarvin challenges the legitimacy of democratic institutions altogether.
He posits that these institutions exist not to serve the public good, as they claim, but to indoctrinate and control, perpetuating what he views as a hypocritical adherence to principles of equality and representation that ultimately undermine genuine freedom. This view seeks to erode public trust in democratic structures, paving the way for a model of governance centred on authoritarian control, with loyalty, submission, and efficiency prioritized over collective decision-making and accountability.
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James Dale Davidson, William Rees-Mogg, Peter Thiel
The Sovereign Individual, a 1997 work by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg, aligns with NRx principles. In this book, Davidson and Rees-Mogg foresee a future where technology empowers wealthy individuals to ‘exit’ national governance and establish private sovereignties beyond collective governance structures. They argue that advancing technology and global economic integration will gradually make nation-states obsolete. These shifts, they propose, will allow the wealthy elite to separate from public governance and establish autonomous, self-ruled enclaves. This form of private governance sidesteps democratic accountability, redefining governance as a market-driven enterprise where allegiance, wealth, and control replace civic engagement and public accountability as the foundation of power.
Thiel’s endorsement reflects a willingness to deprioritize democratic principles in favour of a system where market dynamics determine governance. In this model, the wealthy act as an ‘untethered elite,’ operating outside traditional government structures and with minimal obligations toward society. Thiel’s support for these ideas resonates with NRx philosophy, which advocates for a hierarchical, authoritarian structure where governance is private, enabling elites to ‘exit’ mainstream society.
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Rowland Atkinson
Urban sociologist Rowland Atkinson’s concept of ‘libertecture’ sheds light on the spatial dimensions of NRx and libertarian values. Libertecture encompasses urban developments like seasteads, gated communities, start-up cities and other forms of ‘free space’, each structured to prioritise independence and autonomy for the privileged at the expense of democratic inclusivity. These spaces foster exclusivity, creating environments accessible only to those with wealth or connections, undermining the democratic ideal of public, shared space. Atkinson’s analysis extends to other libertecture spaces, including digital ‘portal spaces,’ remote ‘pioneer exclaves,’ and even urban areas abandoned due to diverted investment. Each zone prioritises wealth and autonomy over inclusivity and civic engagement, fostering social and economic divides that deepen inequality. By promoting environments that devalue collective responsibility, libertecture contributes to a fragmented urban landscape where autonomy is privileged and social bonds weakened.
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What science can tell you
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| Cas Mudde - The Populist Zeitgeist - Government and Opposition - 2004 |
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Since the 1980s the rise of so-called ‘populist parties’ has given rise to thousands of books, articles, columns and editorials. This article aims to make a threefold contribution to the current debate on populism in liberal democracies.
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| I have defined populism as an ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite’, and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people. |
| Populist discourse has become mainstream in the politics of contemporary western democracies. I have called this the populist Zeitgeist. True, most mainstream parties mainly use populist rhetoric, but some also call for populist amendments to the liberal democratic system (most notably through the introduction of plebiscitary instruments). |
| I have argued that the explanations of and the reactions to the current populist Zeitgeist are seriously flawed. Much of the recently proposed solutions have been inspired by the populist critique of the New Left in the 1970s and 1980s, which differs fundamentally from that of the 1990s (in supply and demand). In sharp contrast to the earlier period, contemporary populists favour output over input and leadership over participation. Consequently, these reactions are not just flawed, they can become counter-productive, i.e. strengthening the populist challenge rather than weakening it. |
| https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/government-and-opposition/article/populist-zeitgeist/2CD34F8B25C4FFF4F322316833DB94B7 |
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Do you want to know more?
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| Who DIS |
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| WhoDis is a flagship initiative launched by Justice for Prosperity and developed together with TextGain. It uses Artificial Intelligence, a topical subject in the fight against misinformation and online subversion. By exposing the actors’ tactics of spreading hate conspiracies, WhoDis is one step ahead of them. |
| https://whodis.org/ |
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| The PopuList |
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| The PopuList offers academics and journalists an overview of populist, far-left and far-right parties in Europe from 1989 until 2022. |
| https://popu-list.org/ |
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