The paradox of democratic backsliding

[LONDON] Suppose someone curtails your freedoms and starts telling you what to do, perhaps even tying your hands behind your back and causing you pain. As awful as it sounds, you love it.

In the private realm, this phenomenon bears the name of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, a 19th-century Austrian nobleman whose erotic fiction displayed a penchant for pain.

A similar phenomenon occurs in the public realm: authoritarian and populist leaders erode civil liberties, weaken democratic checks and balances, and browbeat the press and the judiciary. Yet, rather than taking to the streets in protest, many voters seem to love it.