The Revenge of Power: The Global Assault on Democracy and How to Defeat It

　　曾任委內瑞拉產業貿易部長、世界銀行執行董事的摩伊希斯．奈姆，帶來這部令人警醒的作品，在其中揭示了民主的未來。本書闡述了這個時代最重要的戰役之一，以及如何遏止、擊敗世界各地不斷湧現的專制者們。
 
　　「儘管安‧艾普邦姆(《古拉格的歷史》作者)、提摩希‧史奈德(《暴政》作者)、雅沙‧芒克的作品都涵蓋相近領域，奈姆對新的威權主義提供了令人信服且易懂的概述。」──出版人週刊
 
　　在暢銷前作《微權力》裡，摩伊希斯．奈姆分析了使權力被稀釋的力量。在這部作品中，他轉而探討導致權力集中的趨勢、條件、科技和行為，以及在強化和削弱權力的力量間發生的衝突。他聚焦於三個P：民粹主義(populism)、極化(polarization)、後真相(post-truths)，這三者由來已久，卻被今日的專制者們結合，發展出一種全新的、令人恐懼的方式，用以摧毀民主。
　　
　　奈姆分析了川普、普丁、奧班．維克多、雅伊爾．波索納洛等人，書中充滿引人入勝的角色與故事，並生動描述專制者用以打擊反對力量的詭計與策略。本書串起全球重大事件和政治策略，呈現了影響深遠、經常悄然無息發生在權力和政治上的轉變。參考最新社會科學研究資料，奈姆揭示同一組鞏固權力的策略，是如何在截然不同的領域，包含政治、經濟、社會環境中不斷出現，並對於我們能採取什麼行動來確保自由和民主不落居下風，提供了深刻見解。
 
　　這些權力的競爭，決定了我們將面臨更民主或更專制的明天。奈姆不僅探討為何某些地方的權力集中，某些地方的權力卻分散，更透過本書叩問：「自由」的未來，會是什麼樣貌？

　　(文/博客來編譯)

Named one of the New Yorker’s Best Books of 2022

＂An authoritative and intelligent portrait of the global spread of authoritarianism and its dangers...what sets [this] work apart from books like Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny and Michiko Kakutani’s The Death of Truth is its unusually comprehensive armada of facts about the international drift over the past two decades toward authoritarian leaders, whether old-style dictators like Kim Jong Un or nominally elected presidents like Vladimir Putin.＂ --Kirkus

An urgent, thrilling, and original look at the future of democracy that illuminates one of the most important battles of our time: the future of freedom and how to contain and defeat the autocrats mushrooming around the world.

In his bestselling book The End of Power, Moisés Naím examined power-diluting forces. In The Revenge of Power, Naím turns to the trends, conditions, technologies and behaviors that are contributing to the concentration of power, and to the clash between those forces that weaken power and those that strengthen it. He concentrates on the three ＂P＂s--populism, polarization, and post-truths. All of which are as old as time, but are combined by today’s autocrats to undermine democratic life in new and frightening ways. Power has not changed. But the way people go about gaining it and using it has been transformed.

The Revenge of Power is packed with alluring characters, riveting stories about power grabs and losses, and vivid examples of the tricks and tactics used by autocrats to counter the forces that are weakening their power. It connects the dots between global events and political tactics that, when taken together, show a profound and often stealthy transformation in power and politics worldwide. Using the best available data and insights taken from recent research in the social sciences, Naím reveals how, on close examination, the same set of strategies to consolidate power pop up again and again in places with vastly different political, economic, and social circumstances, and offers insights about what can be done to ensure that freedom and democracy prevail.

The outcomes of these battles for power will determine if our future will be more autocratic or more democratic. Naím addresses the questions at the heart of the matter: Why is power concentrating in some places while in others it is fragmenting and degrading? And the big question: What is the future of freedom?

MOISES NAIM is a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an internationally syndicated columnist. He served as editor in chief of Foreign Policy, as Venezuela’s trade minister, and as executive director of the World Bank.