Chinese citizens understand the authoritarian regime they live in and know that President XI is in charge.
Similarly Russia--its citizens know what type of regime it is and that Putin is in charge.
America is quite different, and less transparent. Less clear who is in charge
Similarly Russia--its citizens know what type of regime it is and that Putin is in charge.
America is quite different, and less transparent. Less clear who is in charge
The profound discrepancy between the actual nature of the regime and the public understanding of the regime may in fact be an essential feature of the regime type itself.
Such regime types require a much more sophisticated type of social control (function of mass media and cultural institutions). "totalitarian" in scope but not just that. If totalitarian implies scope or breadth it fails to capture the depth.
But we live in a very interesting and disruptive time of accelerated delegitimation of institutions (including media) and therefore narrowing of that essential discrepancy between reality and public perception.
But because the regime type itself presupposes that discrepancy, the regime type is also changing in a fundamental way.
We've already seen this process in UK.
We've already seen this process in UK.
These observations gesture toward a useful context in which to digest Matt Taibbi's excellent piece on impeachment
taibbi.substack.com/p/were-in-a-pe…
taibbi.substack.com/p/were-in-a-pe…
