Book Review: “Twilight of Democracy” (by Anne Applebaum)
By: Dr. Thomas J. West Iii
Tags: Politics, Democracy, History, Authoritarianism, Books

Book Review: “Twilight of Democracy” (by Anne Applebaum)

Anne Applebaum’s new book is a haunting reminder of just how fragile democracies are and how easily they can be dismantled from within.

I’ve been meaning to read this book for a while, ever since I saw that Anne Applebaum was going to expand the essay that she wrote for The Atlantic into a full-length book. I’m glad that I’ve read it, but it’s a haunting book, that’s for sure. It’s a potent, and somewhat apocalyptic, reminder that democracies are only as strong as the people who live in them, that there is nothing about them that is ontologically strong and secure. In order to continue to function as they should, they require buy-in and maintenance and support and, above all, faith. Without those things they are subject to corrosion and destruction from within.

Applebaum focuses on three different countries that have seen a rising tide of anti-democratic tide: Poland, the UK, and the US. Of the three, it’s Poland that has suffered the most dramatic reversals, as the Law and Justice Party has slowly risen to power on a tide of falsehoods, conspiracy theories, and reactionary conservatism. In the UK, meanwhile, a strange sort of nostalgia took hold in the years leading up to the Brexit vote, a yearning for a time when Britain actually did things in the world. As foolish and mendacious as he could be (and still is), Boris Johnson and others like him were able to seize control of the narrative and create enough of a groundswell to achieve the Brexit vote they desired.

However, it’s important to point out that what’s happened in Poland and the UK isn’t confined to those nations, and Twilight also includes a discussion of various other nations in Europe that have begun to struggle against the rising tide of nationalism. She discusses Spain and Hungary in particular detail, and as someone who isn’t particularly plugged in to European politics — except in the most general sense — it was rather distressing to see this reactionary sort of ideology has taken root all over the continent, aided and abetted by technology, which makes it significantly easier to spread disinformation. In the hands of such menacing figures as Viktor Orbán of Hungary, such power is very dangerous indeed, especially since he seems committed to nothing less than the rewriting of history itself (a common tactic among authoritarians everywhere).

Her discussion of the US by necessity includes a substantial analysis of Fox News and its role in the decline of faith in democracy. Applebaum focuses in particular on Laura Ingraham, who has gone from a relative unknown to one of the most powerful, and most Trumpian, voices at Fox News. Like so many others on the right, she has given into a certain sort of apocalyptic despair, which means that she is both willing to carry water for an authoritarian figure (part of a whole class of such people that Applebaum refers to as clercs) and smother the contradictions that such an action necessitates.

Throughout the book, Applebaum is as concerned with people as she is with processes, in that she often focuses on the individuals whose choices and political actions have led to the current state of affairs. There’s a potent truth here, for it’s a fact that no authoritarian is able to rise to power without having the support of at least some of those in positions of cultural authority to buy in, what Applebaum, following in the footsteps of Julien Benda, refers to as clercs. These are the people who make authoritarianism palatable to the masses, whether through their positions in powerful media or by distorting museum exhibits to support a dominant agenda (which has happened in Hungary).

Now, it has to be said that Applebaum does sometimes play a bit of both-sidesism, particularly when it comes to highlighting the supposed excesses of the left. She doesn’t dwell on it too much, but she does call out what she sees as the problems with cancel culture, which she sees as smothering rational political debate. Given that she contributes to The Atlantic (which has made the alleged power of cancel culture one of its most frequently reported-on phenomena), and that she has worked with and for a number of conservative groups and individuals, I’m not terribly surprised at this line of attack on her part, nor do I think it undercuts the validity of the book’s more substantial arguments. However, the very fact that she puts them into the conversation at all shows the extent to which many of the most prominent voices in conservatism still cling to their old pieties, refusing to take accountability for their own culpability for the state in which we find ourselves. Indeed, one of the frustrating things about this book is Applebaum’s lack of self-reflection, particularly when it comes to her friendships with some of the very people that she criticizes (one has to wonder what type of person would be friends with Boris Johnson in the first place).

Twilight of Democracy is part of a growing body of work devoted to the study and analysis of what it is that makes democracies work and why they are so fragile, and for that reason it’s necessary reading. Even though Trump has been defeated at the ballot box and is due to leave the White House on January 20, it’s important to remember that, as of this writing, his assault on the electoral system itself is ongoing, with a “final showdown” set to take place on January 6, when Congress is supposed to certify the results from the Electoral College.

Given this context, this book is thus something of an intellectual call to arms. It reaches out to each of us, asking us to do our part to ensure that democracy doesn’t go the way of so many other failed political systems. As she reminds us near the end of the book: “no political victory is ever permanent, no definition of ‘the nation’ is guaranteed to last, and no elite of any kind […] rules forever.” There’s something more than a little terrifying about the idea that history is one long cycle, that every political victory must be re-fought again and again and again. But such, alas, is the nature of modernity.