The Authoritarian Temptation
The paradox of democracy today is that, with people’s material expectations largely met, citizens in many countries – including Hungary, Russia, and Turkey – have increasingly voted for neo-authoritarian defenders of stability and national sovereignty. This trend will not reverse until voters see that prosperity requires freedom.
https://prosyn.org/5jucUmM
NEW YORK – Twenty-four years ago this month, Soviet hardliners, desperate to stop the country’s nascent democratic transition, arrested Mikhail Gorbachev and declared martial law. In response, millions of protesters poured into the streets of Moscow and towns across the Soviet Union. Key elements of the army refused to accept the coup, and it soon collapsed – with the Soviet Union soon to follow.