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One Neck To Choke: Or, Absolutism
Paperback
Series: Need to Know Book Club, Book 1
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jul 29 2025
Pages: 286
Weight: 0.63
Height: 0.60 Width: 5.00 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely - to paraphrase Lord Acton
But how do you spot it before it's too late?
Most wannabe dictators today don't storm the palace - they get elected, then slowly strangle democracy from the inside while claiming to represent the people.
One Neck To Choke cuts through the confusion with clear, practical insights about how power really works in the 21st century. This isn't abstract political theory - it's a field guide for citizens, journalists, and anyone who wants to understand what's happening to democratic institutions worldwide.
You'll learn:
- How to spot the warning signs of democratic backsliding before they become irreversible
- Why moral certainty and political absolutism aren't the same thing - and why confusing them is dangerous
- How digital technology creates new tools for control that make traditional authoritarianism look primitive
- What emergency powers, platform governance, and competitive authoritarianism actually mean for ordinary people
- The practical difference between strong leadership and unreviewable authority
Written in clear, accessible language without academic jargon, One Neck To Choke shows how concentrated power operates across cultures and centuries - from Louis XIV's Versailles to Xi Jinping's China, from religious fundamentalism to populist movements.
More importantly, it provides concrete tools for building institutions that can say no to power when it matters most.
Includes a practical Institutional Health Checklist for diagnosing democratic breakdown in real time.
Whether you're trying to understand current events or protect democratic institutions for the future, this book provides the intellectual toolkit you need to navigate power without surrendering accountability.
For readers of Steven Levitsky's How Democracies Die, Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny, and anyone concerned about the future of democratic governance.
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