Some good nuggets but overall there’s more detail than you’ll ever want about the governments of Hungary and Poland (unless that’s your thing). A wake-up call to those who believe that democracy is somehow a default, and indestructible. Got me thinking about how many countries have NOT been under authoritarian rule in the last 100 years.

I believe I found an error in this book. Page 149

“ the nation began." FranklinGraham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham and the president of Liberty University, used even more elaborate”

I don’t think Graham was ever the president of liberty university. I believe the author has Jerry Falwell and his son confused with Billy Graham and his son.

Un libro escrito desde la derecha para la derecha. Que intenta entender los peligros de los extremos y aprovecha para soltar, cada vez que puede, un discurso apologético hacia Margaret Thatcher y Ronald Reagan, lo cual ya dice suficiente.

Los ataques y grandilocuencia hacia lo que ella llama extrema izquierda radical (donde incluye incluso a Jeremy Corbyn, exmiembro del partido laborista inglés) no se comparan con los ejemplos de “soberanistas” y otros adjetivos muchísimo más suaves con los que suele adjetivar a la extrema derecha.

Finalmente, tampoco te deja una comprensión mucho más profunda ni un aporte teórico significativo para entender el fenómeno actual. Me parece un libro bastante sobrevalorado. No lo recomiendo.

In this short book, Applebaum explores the slide from democracy to authoritarianism. Applebaum says that authoritarianism "appeals, simply, to people who cannot tolerate complexity: there is nothing intrinsically “left-wing” or “right-wing” about this instinct at all. It is anti-pluralist. It is suspicious of people with different ideas. It is allergic to fierce debates. Whether those who have it ultimately derive their politics from Marxism or nationalism is irrelevant. It is a frame of mind, not a set of ideas." She gives several examples both recent and in the past: in Poland, the US, England, and Spain to name a few. It is these historical case studies that are the most interesting aspect of this book. She is unsure whether the US is irretrievably headed away from democracy but she is hopeful that we are not. She concludes "Together we can make old and misunderstood words like liberalism mean something again; together we can fight back against lies and liars; together we can rethink what democracy should look like in a digital age." Recommended.