Most authoritarian regimes or dictatorships have begun in the ballot box: they don’t have to be the result of an uprising or coup.
There are a few key ingredients that are essential for voters to embrace authoritarian options.
Firstly, they need to be worn down by constant financial insecurity. In Spain (Italy, and many other nations) this particular ingredient isn’t difficult to locate: it is already there. Various governments – and a handful of so-called “left-wing” and right-wing parties that are busy gobbling up as much of the pie as they can for themselves – have done a wonderful job in fostering fiscal injustice and deepening the divide between the ultra-rich, the regime and its clientele, and the people.
