Autocrats either take advantage of extant political polarization, exacerbate political divides themselves, or employ a mixture of both strategies to rise to power within democracies.

How Autocrats Utilize and Exacerbate Polarization

In the context of a polarized electorate divided by ideological issues and social divisions, autocrats often employ populistic rhetoric in their campaigns to achieve broad public support. This populism is typically divisive and seeks to pit an autocrat’s supporters against supporters of democracy.

How Autocrats Utilize Populism to Their Advantage

Autocrats exacerbate long-existing social divides (such as racial or ethnic divides, political divides, etc.) to destabilize a country’s political system and garner popular support.

How Autocrats Utilize and Exacerbate Social Divides

Would-be autocrats running in democratic elections build a winning base of support through three overlapping strategies: exploiting or exacerbating political polarization, exacerbating existing social divides (e.g., racial, ethnic, or elite-versus-people divides), and engaging in populist campaigning. Together these tactics mobilize enough support to enable and maintain the autocrat's rise to power.

Wesleyan University

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Would-be autocrats competing in democratic elections can employ a variety of strategies to convince voters to elect them. Autocrats have recently benefitted from a growing dissatisfaction with democracy among voters and have also manipulated social divides among their electorates to garner support.

How Autocrats Win Elections in Democracies

Autocrats have benefitted from a rising perception among citizens of democracies that democracies struggle to govern, particularly on addressing long-term issues and immediate crises. Autocrats have capitalized off of this frustration to convince voters to elect non-democratic candidates.

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