In his speech, “When Does Populism Become a Threat to Democracy”, Larry Diamond, a recognized scholar at Stanford https://diamond-democracy.stanford.edu/biography, raises concerns over “The process of creeping authoritarianism” and its incremental stages. As Diamond observes, “there is a kind of playbook, what may be termed the autocrats’ twelve-step program” (extracted below in part). I urge you to read it.
1. “Begin to demonize the opposition as illegitimate and unpatriotic, part of the discredited establishment (or other disloyal elements), out of touch with the “true people.”
2. Undermine the independence of the courts by forcing existing judges to retire or restructuring the judiciary to enable new appointments, particularly at the highest levels that will interpret the constitution.
3. Undermine the independence of the media, by denouncing them as partisan, mobilizing the intense populist following against independent, professional news media, then bringing to bear tax and regulatory pressure, discouraging advertising, and then finally, after independent media are severely weakened, taking over ownership of them through politically loyal businesses and party-linked political cronies.
4. If there is public broadcasting, gain control of it and politicize it.
5. Impose stricter control of the Internet, in the name of morality, security, counter-terrorism, but casting a chilling effect on free speech.
6. Subdue (depoliticize) other elements of civil society—particularly NGOs and universities—by casting independent and especially anti-corruption and human rights NGOs as politically partisan and anti-government, and for that matter, just representative of the corrupt, effete elite who have betrayed the “true people,” the majority of the country. Make university professors afraid to criticize the government in their writings and classrooms, and student protest groups liable to prosecution for peaceful protest. Create a new, fake civil society that is loyal to the authoritarian populist leader and party.
7. Intimidate the business community into ceasing support for opposition parties, by threatening to unleash tax and regulatory punishment on businesses that continue to fund opposition parties and candidates—and then actually victimizing (e.g. bankrupting) business corporations and owners that do so.
8. Use state control over contracts, credit flows, and other resources to enrich a new class of political crony capitalists who are tightly linked to and reliably supportive of the ruling party.
9. Extend political control over the state bureaucracy and security apparatus to purge the “deep state” of “corrupt elites disloyal to the nation,” which is to say professional civil servants and military officers who are loyal to the nation and not to any political party. Use the state intelligence apparatus as a weapon against the opposition.
10. Gerrymander constituencies and otherwise rig electoral rules to make it much more difficult for opposition parties to win the next election, and to ensure that the ruling party can return to power even if it wins less than majority support at the polls.
11. Gain control over electoral administration to further tilt the electoral playing field and institutionalize competitive authoritarianism.
12. ¬Repeat steps 1 to 11, ever more vigorously, deepening fear of opposing or criticizing the new political hegemony and thus demobilizing all significant forms of resistance.”
“The above twelve-step program roughly represents, though not in identical sequence or degree (and no doubt not exhaustively), how populist leaders like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Recip Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, and Viktor Orban in Hungary have dismantled democratic regimes and disfigured them into competitive authoritarian ones. Vladimir Putin, though not really a full-blown populist, used many of these same techniques, but he moved more quickly and ruthlessly. Many observers are concerned about early warning signs of a similar playbook unfolding under the Law and Justice government in Poland, though the civic resistance to it is stronger (and the party’s majority in parliament does not give it the same ability to amend the constitution that greatly facilitated Orban’s project in Hungary). The process can stop at the point of producing a regime that is still sufficiently competitive that many well-intentioned observers (including Freedom House) fail to grasp the demise of real democracy. That is still the case in Hungary; it was the case in Venezuela for several years after Chavez, in the early 2000’s, had dragged the system below minimum democratic standards; and it was the case in Turkey until last year, when the failed military coup attempt prompted a crackdown on opposition and purge of the state bureaucracy so sweeping and ruthless that no serious observer could any longer fail to recognize that democracy had died.”
https://diamond-democracy.stanford.edu/speaking/speeches/when-does-populism-become-threat-democracy#:~:text=6.,7.