Autocracy Inc.: How the World's Authoritarians Work Together

The is named for one of the great democratic scholars and public intellectuals of the twentieth century. Seymour Martin Lipset’s scholarship on such themes as the conditions for democracy, political parties, voting behavior, extremist movements, ideologies, and public opinion constitutes one of the most prolific, insightful, and widely read bodies of work on democracy ever produced by a single author.

Lipset was also one of the most important comparative analysts of the two great democracies of North America, and a strong advocate for US-Canadian cooperation. The joint US-Canadian sponsorship of the Lipset Lecture provides an opportunity for influential audiences in both countries to hear and discuss a major intellectual statement on democracy each year. It serves as a catalyst for further cooperation between Canada and the United States in the promotion of democracy and democratic ideas around the world.

Inaugurated in 2004, it is an intellectual platform for men and women who, like Lipset, have made important contributions to our thinking about key issues of democracy through their writings and other accomplishments.

Anne Applebaum is a staff writer for The Atlantic and a Pulitzer-prize winning historian. She is also a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the Agora Institute, where she co-directs Arena, a program on disinformation and 21st century propaganda. Applebaum is a member of the board of directors at the National Endowment for Democracy and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Democracy.

A Washington Post columnist for fifteen years and a former member of the editorial board, she has also worked as the foreign and deputy editor of the Spectator Magazine in London, as the political editor of the Evening Standard, a columnist at Slate, and various positions at The Telegraph. From 1988-1991, she covered the collapse of communism as the Warsaw correspondent of The Economist magazine and The Independent newspaper.

Her most recent book, The Twilight of Democracy: the Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism (2020), explains why some of her contemporaries have abandoned liberal democratic ideals in favor of strongman cults, nationalist movements, or one-party states. Applebaum's previous books include Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine (2017); Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 (2012); and Gulag: A History (2003). Both Iron Curtain and Gulag: A History have appeared in more than two dozen translations and both were National Book Award finalists.

Following the lecture, there will be a conversation with William J. Dobson, coeditor of the Journal of Democracy.

There are a limited number of seats for in-person attendance of this event, and they will be awarded on a first come, first serve basis. The event will also be livestreamed. RSVP to attend in-person or to receive livestream information. All participants must register in advance to attend and will receive instructions prior to the event.

6:00 p.m. Eastern Time

501 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20001

Reception to follow from 7:30 - 8:30pm

Government issued photo ID required to enter the Embassy.

Please email [email protected] to register as a member of the press.

Past Lectures

2004 Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Scholarship and Statesmanship

2005 Francis Fukuyama, Identity, Immigration, and Liberal Democracy

2006 Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Toward Islamic Democracies

2007 Pierre Hassner, Russia’s Transition to Autocracy: The Implications for World Politics

2008 Jean Bethke Elshtain, Religion and Democracy: Allies or Antagonists?

2009 Nathan Glazer, Democracy and Diversity: Dealing with Deep Divides

2010 Ivan Krastev, Paradoxes of the New Authoritarianism

2011 Abdou Filali-Ansary, The Arab Revolutions: Democracy and Historical Consciousness

2012 Alfred C. Stepan (with Juan J. Linz), Democratization Theory and the Arab Spring

2013 Donald L. Horowitz, Ethnic Power Sharing and Democracy: Three Big Problems

2014 Lilia Shevtsova, Russia’s Political System: The Drama of Decay

2015 Andrew J. Nathan, The Puzzle of the Chinese Middle Class

2016 Ghia Nodia, The Crisis of Postnationalism

2017 William Galston, The Populist Challenge to Liberal Democracy

2018 (delivered February 2019) Anwar Ibrahim, Confronting Authoritarianism

2019 Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, The Rise and Fall of 'Good Governance' Promotion

2020 Minxin Pei, Totalitarianism's Long Dark Shadow Over China

2021 Ronald Deibert, Digital Subversion: The Threat to Democracy

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Embassy of Canada to the United States, 501 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, United States