The Big Idea
Applebaum presents democratic decline as an active process carried out through five recurring tactics: corruption, electoral manipulation, personnel capture, information control, and the monopolization of violence. Rather than overthrowing democracy from the outside, leaders use these tools to bend institutions from within, weaken rivals, and move a state toward permanent one-party or one-leader rule. Recognizing that playbook matters because she frames democratic survival as dependent on conscious civic action, not on the assumption that institutions will protect themselves.
