Many democratic institutions and norms are chipped away to rid the citizens and the government of basic democratic rules. Leaders chip away each aspect that reflects a common standard in their government. In the process of doing this to their government, they are hiding the government from their citizens to reach full control over the country. To achieve total control over institutions would result in the government blanketing the truth from their citizens. When in fact is covered by its citizens, the government lead their perspective to its citizens. This hiding of truth leads to democratic norms and institutions are crushed by the hands of the government.

The steps that are taken by the leader to chip away at democratic norms and institution can be seen by the Russian parliament adopting an internet control bill for the country. Though Russia already requires information of citizens to be stored on servers, the Russia government wants more control over their citizens. The adopting of the bill has risen emotional fear over widespread censorship in the country. The citizens of the country would avoid government restrictions that are on the internet, and the quality of connections would ultimately decrease in the future. The Russian parliament states that the reason that the bill was adopted is that it is a defense measure for the United States or other powers around the world to prevent a cut off from the internet in Russia. This bill would increase the control that the Russian government has over information, block message software. This adoption of the bill has raised concerns over the citizens used to an open internet. The Russian government in the end to gain control would allow the decline of the internet in Russia.

The full fledge control that a government would take to control the internet would hide the real reason as to why their government would want control over the internet. This blanketing of the truth would be done by exacting fear that other countries that are considered antagonistic “might “ shut down their network to weaken the country. Though, the real reason is entirely is full frontal in that control over something could give way to deconstruct primary democratic institutions and norms that citizens are available to in the country. This process of deconstructing democratic norms and institutions leads to a full take over by an authoritarian government in which in time the government could never walk the path of democracy because the government sways the citizen’s perception and judgment.

This process of full fledge control over the internet in the whole reflects that on to the country and the citizens of the slow deconstruct of democratic norms and institutions which will reveal the entire authoritarian nation on the land over time in steps. Also, it blinds the citizens of the country to the only receiving government approval messages. This approval of the words that relayed from the government could cloud the judgment of the citizens of the country to what they perceive of others around the world. This control over the information that is viewed could sway the overall popular opinion in the hands of the leader. In this swaying of perception towards the leader’s judgment could allow the actions of the leader to justified through the eyes of the citizens. This claim is further stated in How Democracies Die, “  If the public comes to share the view that opponents are linked to terrorism and the media are spreading lies, it becomes easier to justify taking actions against them.” The full fledge control that a government could have over the internet would enable significant applications in a network to censor the information that is portrayed to the citizens.

This process that would be done could ultimately lead to the perfect storm forming so that in the end, the government takes control away from its citizens. The idea of the power that a government could have if to take control of something could be the stepping stone into chipping or dismantling a democracy. This dismantling can further

Work Cited:

Ellingworth, James. “ A monopoly on information’: Russia closes grip on the internet.” 2019. https://apnews.com/262960a3495f4cdd97153be18444446c. Accessed April 18, 2019.

“ Russian parliament adopts internet controls bill”. 2019. https://apnews.com/c86458dc8c164530b0c9e0e5c37b7769 Accessed April 18, 2019.

Levitsky, Steven. Ziblatt, Daniel. “ How Democracies Die”. 2019. Broadway Books.