Public opinion

Sociology

Ideology

Dictatorship

Censorship

Politics

Algorithm

Imitation

Rhetoric

Philosophy

Political economy

Autocracy

Political science

Psychology

Elite

Popularity

Computer science

Linguistics

Democracy

Media studies

State (computer science)

Authoritarianism

Social psychology

The Journal of Economic Perspectives

In recent decades, dictatorships based on mass repression have largely given way to a new model based on the manipulation of information. Instead of terrorizing citizens into submission, “informational autocrats” artificially boost their popularity by convincing the public they are competent. To do so, they use propaganda and silence informed members of the elite by co-optation or censorship. Using several sources, including a newly created dataset on authoritarian control techniques, we document a range of trends in recent autocracies consistent with this new model: a decline in violence, efforts to conceal state repression, rejection of official ideologies, imitation of democracy, a perceptions gap between the masses and the elite, and the adoption by leaders of a rhetoric of performance rather than one aimed at inspiring fear.

Informational Autocrats