The main sources were more than 100 in-depth interviews with people of different profiles and expertise from around the world who are on the front lines of fighting authoritarianism. We combined these with detailed analysis of over 160 case studies, which the people we interviewed helped us find and review. Together, these produced the core texts of the 10 volumes.

It was a true collective, collaborative process. Once we had a first draft of each volume, there was a lot of back and forth inside D-Hub, but also with the people interviewed and with peer experts who told us what was missing, what was wrong or what could be more detailed. It took nearly two years of research, review and writing to get the core material ready and be able to start producing the videos and podcasts.

We do not expect what is out there to be final. The fight against authoritarianism keeps evolving and there will be more lessons to come, so we will keep updating the material, and we count on people sending us feedback and new ideas through our website. We will also share new strategies through a newsletter and pair this with training and events.

In our first volume, we analysed types of authoritarianism and identified one grand strategy and eight further plays authoritarians most commonly use around the world.

The grand strategy is what we call syncretic populism. Authoritarians make a masterful blend of elements from across the political spectrum to build broad appeal and secure enough popularity to push their project. They often don’t care whether an idea comes from the right or left as long as it wins the public support they need.

So sometimes we see leaders like Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, who take a more traditionally right-wing approach to public security. He is tough on crime in ways that brutally violate human rights, but is still successful in his country because people had grown deeply tired of living with very high crime rates. But, at the same time, we have some unexpected moves such as Donald Trump pushing pharmaceutical companies to bring down drug prices in the USA, or creating a policy where every newborn receives a bank account with US$1,000 that stays invested until they turn 18. These are the kinds of policies that could easily come from a leftist politician.

What has proven most effective against this is what we call democratic populism: pro-democracy politicians who also understand they need to respond to people’s most pressing daily needs, connect with their values and offer ideas that meet what people are looking for. This way, they build the conditions to push authoritarian ideas away and defend democratic agendas. One current example is Zohran Mamdani in New York, but there are also established politicians who are very good at this, such as Lula da Silva in Brazil.

Another common play among authoritarians is what Steve Bannon calls ‘flood the zone with shit’. They take over all the available space in the media and on social media with disinformation, offensive content and anything that leaves people tired, fed up and unsure what is true. This creates a context in which authoritarianism thrives.

Being reactive simply does not work, because then you are still letting them set the agenda. Fact-checking can be relevant in some contexts, but it is not enough. You need to be able to flood the zone yourself with the agenda you stand for, which means a strong capacity to produce and distribute content at scale. And we shouldn’t dismiss every authoritarian narrative as disinformation either. Sometimes they say things that genuinely make sense to people and sometimes they say true things that are hard for us to hear, and we should be able to hear them and respond more effectively.

The main inspiration for the format was a cookbook. The toolkit is meant to be as easy and practical to adapt as possible. For each play we list, we explain what the play is, why it works and how it works; we give advice on how to make it happen in your context and we provide case studies that illustrate it along with links to go deeper.

We don’t expect every play to make sense to everyone in every context, but we do expect it to spark inspiration. Whatever your context, you will find something there that resonates and that you can pick up and use. We also tried to make sure every volume includes advice that can be applied regardless of your budget. Some plays need more funding or capacity, but many don’t.

Authoritarians are very well aligned. They have the discipline, the infrastructure, the spaces and the willingness to coordinate, learn from each other and support each other. We must do the same, and do it systematically. In fact, the most powerful outcome of the toolkit is not the toolkit itself, but that it has given people a reason to come together, learn from each other and start coordinating better.

We also must stop seeing democracy defence as primarily about democracy. For the average citizen, it is not. People care less about democracy than about having food on the table, good health and time to rest. They care less about elections than about what they will be doing tomorrow and how their family and friends are doing. If we want to defend democracy, we must discuss the authoritarian threat beyond elections and electoral cycles. We must look beyond democracy-centred discussions and into people’s lives, start listening to them and responding to their needs.