BREAKING DOWN DEMOCRACY: Goals, Strategies, and Methods of Modern Authoritarians opposition. Other critical voices in television and print placed the value of this free airtime at $1.8 billion. Anoth- media later faced legal suits, regulatory harassment, er government mandate required radio and television and withdrawal of advertising revenue until the own- stations to broadcast 10 state messages of 30 seconds ers agreed to sell their holdings to business interests each on a daily basis; the messages, not surprisingly, that were on more friendly terms with the regime.’ dovetailed with the arguments of the Chavez campaign. Concheso estimated the value of this free airtime at A prominent theme that runs through authoritarian $292 million. In addition, the government spent an es- media is the imperfect nature of electoral processes timated $200 million on advertising with private radio in the leading democracies, especially the United and television stations. By contrast, the opposition had States. The goal is less to portray elections in Russia, access to five minutes of airtime a day, at a cost of $102 Venezuela, or Iran as paragons of democratic practice million. The opposition was thus limited to an incredible than to muddy the waters—to make the case that 4 percent of the airtime enjoyed by Chavez. countries like the United States have no right to lec- ture others on democracy, and that perhaps all elec- Meanwhile, according to Concheso, the state oil com- tions are equally flawed. The Kremlin's chief propagan- pany spent some $20 billion on gifts of home durable dist described the 2016 U.S. election as “so horribly goods, apartments, and outright cash subsidies to noxious that it only engenders disgust towards what is purchase the allegiance of Venezuelan voters and still inexplicably called a ‘democracy."* underscore the message that without Chavez, this largesse would dry up. A second important instrument in authoritarians’ election toolbox is the state itself.