http://dx.doi.org/10.59704/509e2a631123e187 https://verfassungsblog.de/against-authoritarian-determinism/ Against Authoritarian Determinism - Contingency and the Capacity to Act Mann, Itamar eng 2025-07-19 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 Authoritarianism Genocide Israel-Gaza War Israel-Hamas War Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-SA 4.0 A tempting but corrosive thought about Israeli politics – and about many other places – is that we have already embarked on a one-way road to authoritarianism. This “authoritarian determinism”, sometimes presented as a kind of seasoned realism, assumes that political trajectories continue unidirectionally. There is a world of difference between the many political contexts in which authoritarianism seems to be on the rise. And yet, a common question seems to be asked: in the face of authoritarian determinism, what can be saved of the democratic process? Until when does it make sense to hold on?