Authoritarian States (Part 1 of 13) - Why study authoritarianism? - IB History

The first in a series of short films introducing the subject of modern authoritarian states for students of the IB Diploma.
Authoritarian regimes have always been important- non-democratic governments such as monarchs, emperors or chiefs have been the norm throughout human history. But studying authoritarian states is not merely a historical exercise. The 2018 report of the human rights watchdog organisation Freedom House concludes that only 39 per cent of people in the world today live in countries that are ‘free’ and that over the last decade, democracy has globally been in decline. Long-established democratic regimes have, over the last few decades, dramatically enhanced their capacity to monitor and control the words and actions of individual citizens, as evidenced by the campaigns of WikiLeaks or NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden. With CCTV, Electronic Payment Systems, personal GPS enabled devices, biometric identity cards and genetic fingerprinting, the 21st century state has the means of tracking citizens that goes well beyond even the nightmarish imagining of George Orwell’s 1984.