Matt Zeitlin

Via Chris Hayes, Azar Gat thinks that “authoritarian capitalism” could be a resurgent force in the upcoming years:

Today’s global liberal democratic order faces a significant challenge from the rise of nondemocratic great powers – the West’s old Cold War rivals, China and Russia, now operating under “authoritarian capitalist” rather than Communist regimes.

“Authoritarian Capitalism” has certainly been a common form of government in the 20th century – Pre WWI Germany, Imperial Japan, Pinochet’s Chile, Suharto’s Indonesia, Taiwan etc.  For the most part, these countries are trending to more democracy and openness.  Latin America, besides Venezuela and Cuba, has considerably more liberal and open political systems. Moreover, market authoritarianism did thrive in the Cold War years, mostly because the US was so eager to support any anti-communist regime.

Gat’s thesis, that “Authoritarian Capitalism” is making a comeback, is fundamentally unconvincing.

Most importantly, he only cites TWO examples of emergent market authoritarianism – Russia and China.  Russia has zero liberal or democratic tradition and communist empire just became unsustainable, so that another authoritarian order emerged isn’t all that shocking.  Not to mention massive Western support for moving towards a more open, dynamic, market-oriented economy – an economy so open that it facilitated a state/Western supported highway robbery of resources and wealth by a few.  Putin, who’s gained a lot of popularity by nationalizing industries and going after the oligarchs, could easily slide into authoritarianism, the total lack of civil society (70 years of communist totalitarianism will do that to ya) made this transition easy, and all but inevitable.  The increase in gas and oil prices have also sated the Russian people, easing any calls to a more liberal system.

His other example is China – whose transition from communist totalitarianism to market authoritarianism has been amply documented elsewhere.  Beyond these two examples, Gat can’t really point to an arrow or trend towards market oriented authoritarianism.  The fact that two countries who emerged from the most backward, repressive possible regimes into something that is still repressive is hardly surprising, or noteworthy.

Democracy is hardly inevitable in most countries – but just because of the rather special circumstances in Russia and China hardly means that the liberal order is being “put on the defensive.”