A Question of Order
India, Turkey, and the Return of Strongmen
Neoliberals thought capitalism would bring about democracy, civil liberties, and human rights everywhere. But that is fast becoming an illusion, particularly in the East, where traditionalist and nationalist leaders are attracting religious, rural, or newly urban constituencies and ushering in an era of illiberal democracies. Peer reports from two of the world's largest democracies-Narendra Modi's India and Recep Tyyip Erdogan's Turkey-and examines how two charismatic strongmen came to power and moved their country in the direction of authoritarianism.
Basharat Peer is an opinion editor at The New York Times. His memoir,Curfewed Night (2010), won India's Crossword Award for Non-Fiction, and was chosen as a Book of the Year by both The New Yorker and The Economist. He has been an editor at Foreign Affairs and The New York Times' India Ink blog, and has written for The New Yorker, Granta, Foreign Affairs, The Guardian, n+1 and The New York Times. Peer studied journalism and politics at the Columbia School of Journalism. He lives in New Delhi.
