The age of authoritarianism

2020 has been a very good year for dictators, if no one else.

Michael Abramowitz of Freedom House, writing for the Persuasion newsletter, tells a Trump-distracted world what’s been going on outside of the United States. And it’s ugly:

…Away from Western-media scrutiny, an authoritarian resurgence has been worsening for years, and it seems to have accelerated during the Trump-Biden contest and these past months of the Covid crisis.

When Americans anxiously watched their televisions and phones for the fragmentary results on Election Night, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia—winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize—was launching military attacks in a rebellious region that could escalate into civil war, also threatening a democratic opening in one of Africa’s most important countries. In Syria, government forces accelerated their relentless shelling of rebel-held territory in Idlib Province, killing more civilians, according to human rights monitors. In Thailand, the military-backed government sought to suppress a protest movement calling for democra…