Index

Abkhazia, 25
Abu Dhabi, 113–118
Adams, John, 208–209, 292
Adams, John Quincy, 99
Afghanistan, 230
Aitmatov, Chingiz (The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years), 176
Akayev, Askar, 86
Ali Baba Corporation, 102–103
Aliyev, Ilham, 134, 174, 216
Al-khair, Waleed Abu, 175
Al Maktoum, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid, 10
Al-Rashid, Harun, 151
Al-Sisi, Abdel Fattah, 20, 216
Angkar, 22
Anquetil-Duperron, Abraham-Hyacinthe, 202–205
Anti-corruption drives, 190–195
Anti-Semitism, 123
Antisocial media, 229
Architecture, 115–118
Arendt, Hannah, 67
Argentina, 7
Aristotle, 65, 87, 285
Ashgabat, 28
Asiatic despotism, 24
Assassination, 80
Atwood, Margaret, 235
Authoritarianism, 17, 73, 212–215, 238
Authority, 214–215
Autocracy, 20, 33, 73, 211, 238
Azerbaijan, 104, 134, 174

Bahrain, 61, 122
Barry, Michael Joseph, 243–244
Bastos, Roa (I, the Supreme), 124
Batatu, Hanna, 290
Beccaria, Cesare, 204
Belarus, 13, 26, 27, 92, 104, 174, 231
Berdymukhamedov, Gurbanguly, 123
Bin Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed, 24–25, 93–94
Black jails, 134
Black public relations, 15
Blair, Tony, 145
Blockchain, 149
Blue Map (app), 152–153
Bo, Xilai, 144, 193–195
Bolkiah, Sultan Hassanal, 27, 48, 83
Boulanger, Nicolas-Antoine, 215–216
Bradbury, Ray, 142
Brezhnev, Leonid Ilyich, 75, 144
Britain, 60, 213, 228, 239
Brother Banner, 85
Brunei, 27, 48, 69, 95, 176, 236
Bureaucratic new middle class, 45
Burke, Edmund, 219–220

California, 118
Cambodia, 22, 28, 47, 188, 225–226
Canada, 16
Canton Public Opinion Research Center (C-POR), 166–167
Capitalism, 18, 46–63, 113, 149, 225, 237, 241, 247–249, 255. See also State capitalism
Carra, Jean-Louis, 206, 291
Castracani, Castruccio, 119, 171
Catherine the Great, 204, 239, 291
Censorship, 118, 133–140
Changsheng Biotechnology Company, 145–146
Charles V, 120
Chechnya, 150, 176
China, People’s Republic of, 4–8, 9, 52, 54–53, 55, 61–63, 69, 94, 99–103, 105–106, 109, 116, 123, 134–140, 150–154, 160–165, 168, 174, 182, 185, 187–188, 212, 226, 229–233, 240, 245, 247, 249–250
China Central Television (CCTV), 84, 145
Chu Hao, 49
Cisco Systems, 139
Commendatio, 60
Communicative abundance, 114
Comte de Ségur, Louis-Philippe, 239
Connections, importance of, 37–44
Consultative democracy, 100, 102
Corruption, 5, 11, 15, 17, 26, 42–45, 50, 55, 57, 68, 84, 97, 119, 122, 146, 151, 154, 161, 165, 179, 190–192, 227–228, 237, 246, 248, 252, 261, 295
Crazy Rich Asians (film), 48, 248–249
Cyberpolicing, 180

Daedalus, 40
Dalai Lama, 162
D’Alembert, Jean-Baptiste le Rond, 219
Death penalty, 174
De Jaucourt, Chevalier, 171
De la Boétie, Étienne, Discours de la servitude volontaire, 217–218, 245
De l’esprit des lois (Montesquieu), 21, 202
Demagogues, 27–29
Democracy, jeremiads against, 9–11. See also Consultative democracy; Managed democracy; Monitory democracy; Phantom democracy
Deng Xiaoping, 46, 62, 186, 191
Despotism: anxiety of rulers, 75–78; architecture of, 115–117; arms deals and, 230–233; causes of, 19; censorship and, 118, 133–140; civil society and, 251–255; communications media and, 100–103, 113–154; corporations and, 240–241; corruption in, 42–44 (see also Corruption); counselors and, 173–174; cyberpolicing in, 180; cynical conformity with, 73; data harvesting by, 162–164; democracy and, 19–20, 25, 225–233, 233–255; digital innovations and, 150–154; digital mutinies in, 104–150; dual economies of, 51–52; elections in, 98–103; emergency response centers in, 151–152; enlightened, 158, 204; entanglement with democracies, 187; ethical numbness in, 42; fear and, 169–181; gaslighting and, 126; grumbling in, 89, 98; grundbegriff (basic concept), as, 207–208; jokes about, 75, 81, 216, 297; kickbacks in, 43–44; law and lawlessness in, 181–195 (see also Power, arbitrary; Rule of law); legitimation of, 119–123; media corporations in, 115; media magicians and, 127–133; media seduction by, 140–142; middle classes in, 63–69; military action against, 244–245; misconceptions about, 18–29; murder in, 44, 56–57; novelty of, 21; office dependency in, 78–79; origins of word, 200, 205, 218; parasitic upon democracy, as, 20; phantom democratic innovations in, 94–98, 102–109, 150–154; plutocrats and, 44–50, 236; poligarchs and, 15, 42–43, 57, 73; promotion of, 231–233; public opinion in, 157–168; public opinion polling in, 159–164; quiet loyalty to, 94–98; resilience of, 25–27, 34–35; resistance to, 242–255; showboating in, 86–93; sovereign-people principle and, 81–86; state capitalism and, 50–57, 113; surveillance in, 161–162; torture in, 175; vassalage in, 57–63; vaudeville government of, 118–127; violence in, 74, 169–181, 244–245; voluntary servitude in, 215–222; welfare payments in, 61–63
Dictatorship, 211
A Dictionary of the English Language (Johnson), 91, 169
Diderot, Denis, 206, 214, 219, 251
Digital innovations, 150–154
Drones (autonomous aircraft), 8, 147, 231, 233, 244, 245
Dual economies, 51–52
Dubai, 10, 116
Durkheim, Emile, 210–211
Dystopian novels, 235

East India Company, 201, 209
Elections, 98–103
Empires, 5, 13, 250, 254
Encyclopédie (1751), 171, 206, 214–215, 219
Engels, Friedrich, 16, 294
Erdoğan, Recep Tayyip, 10, 15, 27, 36, 69, 122, 128, 168, 173, 175
European Union, 6, 53, 180

Facebook, 141, 229
Fatalism, 88
Fear, 169–181; of political death, 79–80
Ferguson, Adam, 246–247
Financial Times, 138
Finland, 5
Firechat (app), 147
Foucault, Michel, 291
Fracasomania (dogmatic pessimism), 6, 262
France, 213, 228, 239
Frederick the Great, 173, 204, 206
Freedom House, 27, 99, 261–262, 269
Freud, Sigmund, 87, 90
“From the masses to the masses” (Maoist principle), 100
Fuentes, Carlos, 88, 274
Fukuyama, Francis, 9

Gagiev, Aslan, 181
Gaslighting, 126, 138
Gentile, Giovanni, 96
Germany, 60, 228
“Getting rice drunk” (Chinese expression), 144
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 79
Gogol, Nikolai, 88–89, 129
Golden Shield, 137
Goldman Sachs, 238, 240
Golf, history of in China, 191–192
Google, 139, 229
Gorani, Giuseppe, 204–205
Gorbachev, Mikhail, 28
Government by permanent campaign, 91
“Gray cardinals,” 128
Guanxi (business relationships), 39
Guardian (newspaper), 138

Hacking, 175, 229
Hajizada, Adnan, 216
Hamlet, 124, 228
Handgang (paying homage), 60
Havel, Václav, 78
Herodotus, 171
Hitler, Adolf, 24, 96–97, 170, 267
Hobbes, Thomas, 87, 169, 285
Hong Kong, 147, 189, 252
Hu, Jintao, 158, 163
Huawei, 101, 140, 231, 249
Hubris, 24, 75, 79–81, 251–252, 297
Human rights groups, 183–184
Hungary, 13, 45, 64, 123, 128, 174, 183, 226
Hun Sen, 28, 46, 47
Huntington, Samuel P., 17
Huxley, Aldous, 235
Hybrid regimes, 19

Illarionov, Andrei, 46
Ilyin, Ivan, 131
India, 7, 213, 228, 239
Indonesia, 213
Innis, Harold, 148–149
Iran, 48, 50, 56, 69, 99, 105–106, 109, 122, 136, 141, 143–144, 159–160, 231, 240, 243
Israel, 241
Italian fascism, 96–98
Italy, 22, 228

Japan, 59, 183, 228, 239
Jaucourt, Chevalier de, 171
Jeenbekov, Sooronbay, 168
Jefferson, Thomas, 208
Johnson, Samuel, 91, 169
Juristocracy, 15, 182

Kafka, Franz, 235
Kazakhstan, 13, 51, 55, 58–59, 97, 145, 176–177, 226
Ketman (moral lip service), 89
Keynesianism, 60
Khamenei, Ali, 48, 159, 160
Khashoggi, Jamal, 94, 175
Khatami, Mohammad, 160
Khodorkovsky, Mikhail Borisovich, 49
Khosravi, Mahafarid Amir, 49
Khsae (connections), 39
Killing the chicken scares the monkey (Chinese proverb), 176
Kim Il-sung, 22
Kim Jong-un, 77
Kleptocracy, 57–58, 63
Knox, Vicesimus, 206–207, 291
Kolney, Keat, 47
Kompromat (compromising information), 237
Krasicki, Ignacy, 50
Križanić, Juraj, 75
Krysha (roofs), 43
Kuratory (fixers), 36
Kuwait, 61, 69
Kyrgyzstan, 86, 168, 176, 230

Laos, 13, 107, 190, 249
Lasswell, Harold D., 292
Latin America, 6–7
Law firms, 186
Lawlessness, 181–195. See also Power, arbitrary; Rule of law
Lebanon, 122
Le Bon, Gustave, 87
Lee, Hsien Loong, 125, 141
Lee, Kuan Yew, 124–125
Legal mediation, 187
Legitimacy problem, 119–120
Lettres persanes (Montesquieu), 21
Levada Center, 165
Li, Keqiang, 62–63, 146, 148
Lippmann, Walter, 167
Liu, Cixin, 11
Liu, Ji, 178
London, 228–229
London, Jack, 235
Louis XIII, 173
Louis XIV, 205
Louis XV, 204, 206
Lu Jun, 146
Lukashenko, Alexander, 26–27, 83, 92, 168, 173, 175–176

Ma, Jack, 102
Ma, Jian, 121
Macbeth, 172
Machiavelli, Niccolò, 3, 12, 15, 74–75, 58, 118–119, 126, 171, 291
Mai Khoi, 105
Maldives, 59
Managed democracy, 212
Mao Zedong, 150, 178
Marx, Karl, 24, 53, 64, 221, 225, 236, 240
Marxism, 27, 64
Mass incidents, 94
McCain, John, 27
McKinsey Corporation, 238
Media censorship, 133–140. See also Censorship; Gaslighting
Media saturation, 17. See also Communicative abundance
Mészáros, Lőrinc, 36–37
Mexico, 7
Middle classes, 63–69
Mill, James, 209
Mill, John Stuart, 34–35, 220
Moc ngoặc (connections), 39
Monitory democracy, 56, 76, 157, 212, 227, 246, 253–255
Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat, 16, 21, 34, 73, 81, 119, 132, 158, 201–203, 219, 265, 271–272, 292
Mordashov, Aleksey, 56
Morozov, Evgeny, 282
Mugabe, Robert, 22–24, 265–266
Multiparty competition, 105–109
Muslim Brotherhood, 28, 177

Nabokov, Vladimir, 235
Nagorno-Karabakh, 25
Nationalism, 131–132
Nazarbayev, Nursultan, 145
Netanyahu, Benjamin, 228
Netizens, 101, 136, 143. See also Wăngmín
Neumann, Franz, 179, 264
New York City, 228–229
New York Times, 138
Nicholas II, 173
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 18–19
Niyazov, Saparmurat, 28, 88
Nongovernmental organizations, 64, 131
North Korea, 22, 77
Norway, 59
Nur-Sultan, 58–59

Olçak, Erol, 128
Oman, 37, 47, 61, 81, 122, 174, 231–232, 250
Orbán, Viktor, 36–37, 44, 76–78, 92, 94, 95, 125–126, 128, 141, 278
Orientalism, 13, 200–208
Orwell, George, 125, 142, 235
Ottoman Empire, 200–201

Paine, Thomas, 34, 178, 207, 266
Pakistan, 13
Palestinians, 241
Patronage, 33–44
Pedantocracy (J. S. Mill), 39
Peng, Liyuan, 92, 274
People’s Daily, 146, 161
Peter principle, 78
Petitioners’ bench, 142
Pew Research Center, 163
Phalaris, 172
Phantom democracy, 17, 94–98, 102–109, 150–154, 237
Phantom public (Walter Lippmann), 167
Physiocrats, 204
Piramida (pyramid), 16
Pisistratus, 118–119
Plato, 226
Plutocracy, 44–50, 236–237
Police states, 23, 169–170
Poligarchs, 24–25, 55
Political parties, 8
Poniatiia (understanding), 44
Popitz, Heinrich, 274
Populism, 263, 240
Poshlost (conformists), 88–89
“Post-truth” carnivals, 9
Potestas in populo, 168
Power: abuses of, 208–212; acting in concert with, 150; arbitrary, 183–185, 194, 251–255; as the despot’s curse, 160; passion for, 14, 22–29
Praegustator (food tasters), 77
The Prince (Machiavelli), 12. See also Machiavelli, Niccolò
Public opinion, 157–168; polling of, 159–162; redefinitions of, 74, 89–90, 168, 227–228; violence and, 150, 178; voluntary servitude and, 227, 236–237
Public relations, 115–123
Putin, Vladimir, 10, 28, 33, 36, 46, 58, 77, 88, 129–132, 141, 157, 173, 176

Qaboos, Sayyid bin Said al Said, 173–174, 250
Qatar, 57, 61, 116, 180–181
Qing dynasty, 183
Quesnay, François, 205
Quiet loyalty, 94–98

Rahmon, Emomali, 177
Rasoulof, Mohammad, 42–43
Rasputin, Grigori Yefimovich, 173
Raynal, Abbé, 219
Reagan, Ronald, 4
Religion, 121–122
Remembrance of Earth’s Past (Liu Cixin), 11
Republic of North Macedonia, 45
Rhinoceritis (Eugene Ionesco), 172
Richelieu, Duc de, Cardinal, 173
Rogan, Antal, 128
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 127
The Rose Garden (Sa’adi Shirazi), 42
Rule of law, 183–185
Russia, 9, 15–16, 27, 52–53, 56–58, 61, 69, 99, 109, 129–132, 140, 158, 181–182, 191, 212, 226, 231–232
Rutte, Mark, 6

Salus populi suprema lex (the safety of the people is the supreme law), 174
Saudi Arabia, 15, 56–57, 59, 61, 69, 121–122, 133, 140, 172, 174–175, 189, 212, 228, 232–233, 245, 250
Shanghai Cooperation Organization, 188
Shopping, 69, 122
Shuvalov, Alexander, 131
Silone, Ignazio, 263
Sina Corporation, 139–140
Singapore, 26, 47–48, 61, 95–96, 104, 124–125, 140, 176, 236, 240, 249
Sistema, 45
Socialist despotism, 16
Socrates, 20
South Africa, 104, 213, 227
South Ossetia, 25
Sovereign people, 81–94
Soviet Union, 172
State capitalism, 50–57, 113, 237, 249
Su, Changhe, 10
Sultanism, 35
Surkov, Vladislav, 128–130
Surveillance capitalism, 161–162, 181, 241

Taiwan, 213
Tajikistan, 55, 94, 107, 177–178, 231
Taksim Gezi Park, 150, 175
Talleyrand, Charles Maurice de, 82, 119
Tanish-bilish (connections), 39
Telefonnoe pravo (“telephone justice”), 182
Telegram (app), 147, 159
Tencent Holdings Limited, 140
Teng Bunma, 47
Thiong’o, Ngugi wa, 265–266
Thucydides, 35–36
Thưởng, Võ Văn, 128
Tiananmen Square massacre, 139, 150, 164
Tibet, 149, 161–162
Tocqueville, Alexis de, 68, 220–222, 225–227, 234, 236, 239, 251, 292, 294
Torpil (connections), 39
Torture, 175, 179
Totalitarianism, 11, 22, 96–97, 120, 170, 211, 246
Transnistria, 25
Trump, Donald, 93, 230
Turkey, 15, 27, 64, 67, 122, 144, 157, 188–189, 226, 228, 236, 240
Turkmenistan, 28–29, 122, 233
Twitter, 141, 229
Tycoons, 48–49
Tyranny, 20, 73, 238

Uighur people, 149, 177, 230
Ukraine, 188, 229
Under the Dome (documentary), 147–148
United Arab Emirates, 10, 15, 69, 94, 98, 116–118
United States, 4, 5, 59, 61, 180, 213, 228, 239
Universities, 37, 159
Uzbekistan, 64, 84–85, 228, 231

Vassalage, 57–63. See also Patronage
Vaudeville government, 118–127
Vietnam, 13, 51, 53, 64, 77, 99, 105–107, 128, 168, 185, 190, 236, 248–250
Violence, 74, 169–181
Voluntary servitude, 14, 24, 34, 75, 108, 215–228, 236–242
Voting, prohibition on women’s participation in, 104

Walzer, Michael, 125
Wang, Huning, 128
Wăngmín (netizens), 101, 143, 147
War, 15–16, 244–245
Wasta (connections), 39
WeChat, 146
Weibo, 167
When trees fall, monkeys scatter (Chinese proverb), 75
Wikipedia, 138, 144
Wilde, Oscar, 216
World Trade Organization, 188
World Values Survey, 261
WYSIWIG principle, 133

Xenophon, 76–77
Xi, Jinping, 36, 75, 77, 84, 88, 92, 157, 163, 195, 244–245, 249–250
Xinjiang, 85
Xue, Mansi, 137

Yahoo, 139
YouTube, 141, 248
Yu, Hua (China in Ten Words), 83
Yu, Keping, 74

Zimbabwe, 22–24