Epstein Secrets

inance behind a screen of false diversity. They have adapted in many ways to the age of the inter- "We're not perfect. But we do have democracy." —Hugo Chavez "Yes, we falsified the last election.... In fact, 93.5 percent [of ballots were] for President Lukashenka. People say this is not a European resu

In addition, various political figures and commentators have praised or come to the defense of despotic rulers including Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Bashar al-Assad. 6. Modem authoritarians can be expected to dou- ble down on their drive to neuter civil society as an incubator of reformist ideas and political

o defend embattled allies like Syria's 8ashar al-Assad. There is also growing replica- tion of what migh

ns like the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Organization of American States, and to defend embattled allies like Syria's Bashar al-Assad. There is also growing replica- tion of what might be called authoritarian best practices, vividly on display in the new Chinese law on nongovernment

inance behind a screen of false diversity. They have adapted in many ways to the age of the inter- “We're not perfect. But we do have democracy.” —Hugo Chavez “Yes, we falsified the last election... In fact, 93.5 percent [of ballots were] for President Lukashenka. People say this is not a European result,

Bush's support of Middle Eastern democracy and cultivate our relations with regional despots like Hosni Mubarak, the Iranian mullahs and the younger Assad have been sent back to the benches in disgrace. Their counsel is now seen as both morally dubious and pragmatically unwise; the 'realists' would have

know that demagogues and aspiring despots can use the language and even the mechanisms of democracy to build personal dictatorships (Napoleon IlI and Hugo Chavez, for example). We know that popular opinion is sometimes more nationalistic than elite opinion and that gains for democracy do not always lead to mor