How to Lose a Country
2019 book by Ece Temelkuran
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How to Lose a Country: The Seven Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship is a 2019 nonfiction book by Ece Temelkuran, discussing how democracies backslide into dictatorships. It was written in English and published in the United Kingdom by 4th Estate.
First edition | |
| Author | Ece Temelkuran |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | 4th Estate (HarperCollins) |
Publication date | 2019 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
Temelkuran outlines the steps on how democracies gradually unravel and discusses this in the context of the rise of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,[1] who came to power in 2002.[2] Temelkuran's argument is that the same decay of democracy that happened in Turkey can happen in countries in the West.[3]
Hannah Lucinda Smith of The Times wrote that the book is "highly readable and vibrates with outrage," although she criticises the book for mainly focusing on right-wing populism and not adequately describing left wing populism.[4]
Satish Deshpande of The Hindu argued that there are parallels to the rule of Narendra Modi, using the word "saptapadi" to refer to the processes Temelkuran outlined.
How to Lose a Country ... to Dictatorship does not discuss Modi,[5] but references a number of populist processes, among them Brexit, Viktor Orban's infantilist language, Intellectuals for Trump[6] to name but these.
