All of us have in our minds a cartoon image of what an autocratic state looks like with a bad
man at the top. But in the 21st century that cartoon bears little resemblance to reality.
Nowadays autocracies are run not by one bad guy but by sophisticated networks composed of
kleptocratic financial structures security services and professional propagandists. The
members of these networks are connected not only within a given country but among many
countries. The corrupt state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt
state-controlled companies in another. The police in one country can arm equip and train the
police in another. The propagandists share resources-the troll farms that promote one
dictator's propaganda can also be used to promote the propaganda of another-and themes
pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America. Unlike
military or political alliances from other times and places this group doesn't operate like a
bloc but rather like an agglomeration of companies: Autocracy Inc. Their relations are not
based on values but are rather transactional which is why they operate so easily across
ideological geographical and cultural lines. In truth they are in full agreement about only
one thing: Their dislike of us the inhabitants of the democratic world and their desire to
see both our political systems and our values undermine. That shared understanding of the
world-where it comes from why it lasts how it works how the democratic world has unwittingly
helped to consolidate it and how we can help bring it down-is the subject of this book.
