Lost Literature: The Ever-Elusive Mystery of Authoritarian Playbooks
“It’s like the Riot Act. The Riot Act. They always tell you they’re gonna read that to you. Have you heard this thing at all?”[i]– George Carlin
We are constantly told about the authoritarian playbook and how it is being used by leaders across the world to subvert democracy. There is supposedly a playbook that is shared and used by despots all over. Much like John Madden’s playbook, this authoritarian playbook is what Xi Jinping, Donald Trump, Viktor Orban, Jair Bolsonaro and countless others use as a handbook for imposing autocratic rule. Yet, it is not clear what exactly this playbook is, what it looks like, or even how many pages it has. Demagogues like Trump are said to be basing their policy ideas on this elusive authoritarian playbook. This is allegedly the same playbook that dictators in the past used, like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. So presumably this playbook, if it exists, has many editions. Further, we are assured that despots have their own personal playbook. There is the Trump playbook, the Hitler playbook, and the Erdogan playbook, so there is not just a main book, there are spin offs that are tailored to specific leaders and political landscapes.
Perhaps the ancient world had their own authoritarian playbooks, and the playbook used now is simply a print version of what was once inscribed on stone tablets. Aristotle makes no mention of this playbook in his treatise on politics, but maybe it is so elusive that even he missed it, or it may have been hidden from him.
The expression that there is an authoritarian playbook is moronic and senseless, however, academics, pundits, and commentators use it all the time, to nods of agreement instead of scoffs of contempt. In a recent interview with Canadian Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre, Toronto Sun journalist Brian Lilley asked him about his apparent use of the “Trump playbook”, and how some are saying that he is taking a page out of it, to which Poilievre responded, “What page, give me a page.”[ii] Lilley sputtered and after trying to explain the nebulous expression, he quickly gave up and asked his question directly. Lilley is not alone. No one can explain what the authoritarian playbook or its spin offs are.
According to Merriam Webster, there are three definitions of playbook, and these are “one or more plays in book form”, “a notebook containing diagrammed football plays” and “a stock of usual tactics or methods”[iii] The definition in use with authoritarian playbook is obviously the third, however, where Madden had playbooks detailing plays and tactics, there is no official authoritarian playbook. Leaders who are said to be using it never talk about using such a book, let alone sharing it with their fellow autocrats. Experts cite this book repeatedly, without offering any scholarly citations. They talk about its pages without referencing page numbers.
The authoritarian playbook is a tired and vapid expression in political science that should be erased from existence immediately, and, like many other terms, like Trumpism or isolationist, it either has no meaning or it is not meant to signify meaning but is a cue to disregard anything someone says or writes. So and so is a Trumpist or an isolationist, thus they must be mocked and ostracized. Authoritarian playbook is a mystifying term. Lilley’s inability to explain it and its pages illustrate this perfectly, but it is so engrained in political science and journalism it is seemingly everlasting, however ridiculous it is. George Carlin, in his book Brain Droppings, has a joke mocking the cliché in movies that obvious or predictable moves by characters are always referred to as “the oldest trick in the book.”[iv] He says “Well, exactly what book are these guys talking about? Have you ever seen a book with a bunch of tricks in it?”, and he goes on to say “And anyway, even if there really were a book with a lot of tricks in it, how would you know which trick was the oldest? They were all printed at the same time.”[v] Just like the expression “oldest trick in the book” does not stand up to scrutiny, the notion that there is a universal authoritarian playbook is silly and absurd upon similar scrutiny. Has anyone seen this book with the steps necessary to impose a dictatorship? These so-called experts throw around this meaningless phrase and expect to be taken seriously. The expression authoritarian playbook is deeply unserious. Is it like the sports almanac in Back to the Future 2, where, in a horrifying alternate reality, Biff becomes a corrupt, venal oligarch who uses the almanac from the future to win millions betting on sports events, keeping it locked in a safe in his office.[vi] Is the authoritarian playbook kept in a safe as well, is it in Mar-a-Lago, Langley, the Vatican, or the Kremlin? Is there a secret library for autocrats? Do they have a book club where they share results and reflections on what they read? Is the library filled with all the playbooks of past dictators, from Augustus to Idi Amin?
Authoritarian playbook is said constantly, but it is not clear what it is or what it refers to. Even self-proclaimed experts on authoritarianism struggle to offer a concrete definition, nor do they justify the expression. When asked directly what the authoritarian playbook looks like, the historian and ‘authoritarianism expert’ Ruth Ben-Ghiat said that it is “when the executive branch of government domesticates or overwhelms or politicizes the judiciary, critiques and tries to silence the press, and when the leader has a party that he’s made into his personal tool, and in general, seeks to remove or neutralize any threats to his power.”[vii] She says that the basic tools are propaganda and corruption, and that the leader is depicted as not only a man of the people, but “also the man above all other men, and he’s the savior of the nation.”[viii] This does not constitute a coherent or novel set of tactics, let alone suggest there is a playbook that autocrats or strongmen use, let alone explain it. Ben-Ghiat is simply describing what dictators usually do to consolidate their power.
The group GroundTruth has a project, Democracy Undone: The Authoritarian’s Playbook, where their reporters in seven countries argue that populist leaders “seem to be working from the same playbook.”[ix] They piece this playbook together using speeches and techniques that are“in use by an interconnected web of populist leaders and their strategists as a way to gain power, impose their values and implement their agenda.”[x] They note that the seven countries are not authoritarian now, but that they are, using the playbook, on the pathway to becoming dictatorships, and that they are “following in the footsteps of China, Russia, Saudia Arabia and other authoritarian states”[xi] Again, what is the playbook? So, China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia used this playbook, and their techniques are being copied in countries like the US and India, so the playbook has editions in many languages, and it can be emulated in wildly different political contexts and environments.
Protect Democracy, a nonprofit group that describes itself as “anti-authoritarianism”, published a report outlining the Authoritarian Playbook.[xii] It explains how autocrats install and impose their regimes, using insights from various scholars like Timothy Snyder and Sheri Berman to detail the seven basic tactics employed by authoritarians. These are politicizing independent institutions, spreading disinformation, aggrandizing executive power, quashing dissent, scapegoating vulnerable communities, corrupting elections, stoking violence.[xiii] They use different case studies, like Argentina and the US, to illustrate these tactics in action. These scholars and activists seem to think that because autocrats follow similar paths to power, there is a unified theory or playbook that exists which can explain and be used to predict and combat their rise. The expression remains illogical and meaningless. Unless there is a book on Trump’s shelf or in Putin’s desk drawer titled “Authoritarian Playbook”, then there is no need to argue there is an authoritarian playbook. It is enough to say that there are patterns in how dictators come into power. Saying every leader perceived to be a potential autocrat is “taking a page from the authoritarian playbook” is pointless and imbecilic. It also perpetuates the scam that is authoritarianism expertise. While there are certainly historians and political scientists who specialize in and study infamous autocrats and the politics of dictatorships, the field of authoritarianism studies in the West is a front for the permanent regime. Academics in this field exist solely to uphold the status quo, and to sneer at any political candidate or movement that is a rebuke to it, disguising their mockery and disgust with phony intellectual arguments about the latest politician to take a page from the authoritarian playbook. Anne Applebaum is a perfect example of this faux intellectualism. In her recent book, Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, she argues that despots around the world are working together to undermine and supplant the democratic world, and that they are apparently operating from the same playbook.[xiv] Yet, there is no direct reference to this playbook, nor is there any evidence that autocrats are sharing such a book. Just because different dictators are observing and learning from each other, as well as using similar strategies, does not mean there is a universal playbook. This expression needs to be extinguished from serious discourse.
The idea of the authoritarian playbook has been constantly referred to ever since 2016 when Trump became a serious threat to the Washington establishment.[xv] According to the high and mighty experts, the authoritarian playbook is Trump’s favorite book. He may not read anything, not even his daily briefs, but he certainly ripped through the authoritarian playbook, as all his actions are apparently in it, or so we are told. The actions of the Democratic party and other opposition parties in Western states are bulwarks against authoritarianism. This is easily debunked. For starters, Trump was initially elevated by the Clinton campaign and their lackeys in the corporate press, as he was seen as the weakest GOP candidate. Further, the Democratic party is also authoritarian, which makes Trump’s case that his opponents are tyrants feasible, as he is indicted in four jurisdictions and resisted by the intelligence agencies.
Authoritarianism experts are delusional, convinced that they are a contrast to figures like Trump, not a mirror image of him. Ben-Ghiat shows this delusional thinking she says that “Any aggression that Trump does is because he’s the defender of freedom, and the Democrat represents real tyranny.”, and she then says that “then in Chile, a coup occurred – and that’s like instant martial law, repression. The conservative Christian Democrats, who were the leading party, actually thought that the junta and Pinochet would establish order in the country and then give back power to them.”[xvi] Of the Biden regime, she says “Not only have they improved the economy and jobs, but they have stood up for America as a multiracial democracy, very, very strongly with their programs, with their legislation, they have helped working people.” Firstly, a coup did not just occur in Chile, it was orchestrated by the Nixon regime to oust the socialist leader Salvador Allende, and secondly, Biden has not stood up for democracy or working people. That is precisely why Harris lost so soundly. Ben-Ghiat’s suggestion that a coup just occurred in Chile is a subtle hint to this insidious way of thinking. The actions of the permanent regime are always noble, and when they are not, they result in a ruthless dictator like Agusto Pinochet, their involvement is to be memory holed, as they did not use the authoritarian playbook to install him into power, Pinochet decided to use the playbook himself. Maybe he found a copy in his local library one day, then plotted and carried out his coup based on the tactics outlined in the playbook.
The implication from the authoritarianism industry is that only leaders they deem ‘far-right’ or ‘pro-Putin’ use the playbook, not the leaders they worship, like Biden. If so, which playbook told him to crush the rail workers strike, pressure social media companies to moderate content they disapproved of, sell arms to Egypt, the UAE, Nigeria, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, mandate the COVID vaccine, propose a Disinformation Governance Board, or to give blanket pardons to his political allies and family members, the Democratic playbook?
Conclusion
While I am mocking the expression, as it is ludicrous and nebulous, its rampant usage illustrates a huge problem with the authoritarianism industry. The numerous experts within it who claim to have special insight into how autocrats operate. Thus, we must listen and act, thwarting whoever they tell us is a grave threat to democracy, are a menace to logic and democracy.
These cretins are working to keep the permanent regime in power. A threat to this regime is an authoritarian who must be vanquished. Trump may be demagogic clown, but those who feign expertise on what is and isn’t autocracy, especially while the status quo they uphold is grossly autocratic and repressive, are a much bigger threat to democracy than Trump. They claim there is an authoritarian playbook not to convey anything of meaning, but to signal to the rest of the illiberal liberal class and their dupes that they must oppose anyone who is alleged to be using this playbook.
There is no authoritarian playbook, in paper, on stone tablets, in cave paintings, on the internet, or in a library. Until someone can show the playbook, no one should claim that any leader is taking a page from it. The authoritarian playbook is as real as the Necronomicon, the difference being that no one is claims to be using it or taking pages from it, outside of other fictional works.
[i] George Carlin: Back in Town. HBO, 1996.
[ii] Toronto Sun. “LILLEY UNLEASHED: Reporter Accuses Poilievre of Being like Trump, Offers No Examples.” YouTube, October 17, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paBY4lVXTGI.
[iii] Merriam Webster. “Definition of PLAYBOOK.” http://www.merriam-webster.com, 2025. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/playbook.
[iv] Carlin, George. Brain Droppings. New York: Hachette Books, 2015.
[v] Carlin. Brain Droppings.
[vi] Back to the Future Part II. Universal Pictures, 1989.
[vii] Herman, Alice, and Ruth Ben-Ghiat. “‘Rule of the Lawless’: What Does the Authoritarian Playbook Look Like?” the Guardian. The Guardian, July 13, 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/13/ruth-ben-ghiat-strongmen-book-authoritarian-playbook.
[viii] Herman and Ben-Ghiat. “‘Rule of the Lawless’: What Does the Authoritarian Playbook Look Like?”
[ix] GroundTruth. “Democracy Undone | the GroundTruth Project.” The GroundTruth Project, 2015. https://thegroundtruthproject.org/democracy-undone-signs-of-authoritarianism/.
[x] GroundTruth. “Democracy Undone | the GroundTruth Project.”
[xi] GroundTruth. “Democracy Undone | the GroundTruth Project.”
[xii] Raderstorf, Ben. “The Authoritarian Playbook.” Protect Democracy, June 15, 2022. https://protectdemocracy.org/work/the-authoritarian-playbook/.
[xiii] Raderstorf. “The Authoritarian Playbook.”
[xiv] Applebaum, Anne. Autocracy, Inc. Doubleday, 2024.
[xv] Levitsky, Steven, and Daniel Ziblatt. How Democracies Die. New York: Crown Publishing, 2018., McQuade, Barbara. Attack from Within. Seven Stories Press, 2024., Posner, Eric A. The Demagogue’s Playbook. All Points Books, 2020., Schmidt, Michael S. Donald Trump v. the United States. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2023. and Wilson, Rick. Everything Trump Touches Dies. Simon and Schuster, 2018.
[xvi] Herman and Ben-Ghiat. “‘Rule of the Lawless’: What Does the Authoritarian Playbook Look Like?”
References
Applebaum, Anne. Autocracy, Inc. Doubleday, 2024.
Back to the Future Part II. Universal Pictures, 1989.
Carlin, George. Brain Droppings. New York: Hachette Books, 2015.
George Carlin: Back in Town. HBO, 1996.
GroundTruth. “Democracy Undone | the GroundTruth Project.” The GroundTruth Project, 2015. https://thegroundtruthproject.org/democracy-undone-signs-of-authoritarianism/.
Herman, Alice, and Ruth Ben-Ghiat. “‘Rule of the Lawless’: What Does the Authoritarian Playbook Look Like?” the Guardian. The Guardian, July 13, 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/13/ruth-ben-ghiat-strongmen-book-authoritarian-playbook.
Levitsky, Steven, and Daniel Ziblatt. How Democracies Die. New York: Crown Publishing, 2018.
McQuade, Barbara. Attack from Within. Seven Stories Press, 2024.
Merriam Webster. “Definition of PLAYBOOK.” http://www.merriam-webster.com, 2025. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/playbook.
Posner, Eric A. The Demagogue’s Playbook. All Points Books, 2020.
Raderstorf, Ben. “The Authoritarian Playbook.” Protect Democracy, June 15, 2022. https://protectdemocracy.org/work/the-authoritarian-playbook/.
Schmidt, Michael S. Donald Trump v. the United States. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2023.
Toronto Sun. “LILLEY UNLEASHED: Reporter Accuses Poilievre of Being like Trump, Offers No Examples.” YouTube, October 17, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paBY4lVXTGI.
Wilson, Rick. Everything Trump Touches Dies. Simon and Schuster, 2018.
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