The first step of the autocrats is to demonize the opposition as illegal and unpatriotic. The authority presents it as part of a discredited establishment that has no contact with “real people”. This point was completely realised in Slovakia.
The independency of courts is besides mostly undermined. Power forces present judges to quit or replace them with their own people.
The 3rd point of the plan, almost already implemented in Slovakia, is undermining media independence, condemning them as biased. Prime Minister Robert Fico, almost copying the plan described by Diamond, mobilizes against independent media ardent supporters of populism. The government takes over media ownership through politically loyal companies and political supporters, as in Hungary.
Another point related to the media, this time public — Take control of him and politicize it — it has already been implemented in Slovakia.
Step 5 is to introduce closer net control in the name of morality, safety or the fight against terrorism. The consequence is to discourage citizens from expressing their opinion. In Slovakia, in the name of freedom of expression, authorities abuse the net and social media to spread false information, lies, discredit campaigns and manipulations
The next point is the submission of another elements of civilian society — especially NGOs and universities. In Slovakia, they are portrayed as elite, political and anti-government biases. All this is done to paralyze civilian society and the non-governmental sector.
Further string of article under video material
Step 7 is to intimidate the business community to halt supporting opposition parties. This happens regularly in Slovakia.
Another goal of autocrats: to usage state control over contracts, financial flows and another resources to enrich the fresh political class of capitalists who are closely linked to the ruling organization and reliably support it. For Slovakia, too, this point can be considered to have been fulfilled.
"Warning wasn't enough"
Point 9 is to extend political control over state bureaucracy and safety apparatus to cleansing the state of anyone who is not slave loyal. The state intelligence apparatus, as in Slovakia, is utilized as a weapon against the opposition.
The 10th nonsubjective is to impede opposition to winning elections by manipulating constituency and election rules. Slovakia besides There are attempts to accomplish this objective.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (illustration picture)Lintao Zhang / Staff / Getty Images
The next step is to take control of the election administration in order to further disrupt the electoral process and institutionalise a competitive authoritarian system. The Slovak authorities are likely to have specified ambitions.
The last step, 12, is to repeat all erstwhile points in an even more energetic way. This aims to deepen the fear of opposition to power in society. Power wants to establish a fresh form of political hegemony, demonizing all crucial forms of resistance.
American sociologist Larry Diamond listed these 12 points on 21 November 2017 in Bratislava at a European conference on democracy. It had an optimistic title "With assurance in the future".
Less than 8 years ago, we see that his words, unfortunately, proved prophetic towards Slovakia. The 2017 informing was not enough.
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