Authoritarian regimes are political systems in which power is concentrated in one individual (an autocratic system) or small group of people (an oligarchic system) who often serve to prop up the central leader. This central dictator figure may use force to remain in power over long periods of time, exploiting systems like the military, deploying secret police, or surveilling citizens to ensure their compliance. For example, the climate of mutual surveillance in the Heart mirrors that found in much of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, who encouraged citizens to inform on their neighbors, friends, and even family members, leading to a culture in which many people were afraid to voice any criticism of Stalin’s totalitarian rule even in the privacy of their own homes (“‘Whisperers’ of Stalin’s Russia Find Their Voice” NPR Weekend Edition, 2007). Authoritarian leaders may also use populist arguments that overlap with the tools of the demagogue, in which they divide their communities between “the people” and “others.” These divisions between the “real” citizenry of a place and these “others” frequently rely on racist or xenophobic arguments and use fear to motivate their base, rather than logical or practical arguments.

In the second and third decades of the 21st century, a number of democratic governments around the world have seen what some critics describe as “democratic backsliding”—moving toward authoritarianism under the sway of leaders who use fear of mass migration and cultural change to stir reactionary passions. In Hungary, for instance, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party rose to power in 2010 by claiming that Hungarian culture was under a two-pronged assault from global liberal values on the one hand and a wave of largely Muslim immigrants on the other. Orbán gradually consolidated control of the press, universities, and other civil society institutions, allowing him to hold power for 16 years, a period during which the US-based democracy watchdog Freedom House downgraded the country from “free” to “partly free.”

The past several years in the United States have seen what many view as a similar erosion of democracy, as the Republican Party under Donald Trump attempts to control the actions of universities and media organizations. Amid these developments, another pro-democracy watchdog organization—the Sweden-based V-Dem Institute—noted an unprecedented 24% decline in the US’s ranking on their democracy index (“Democratic Backsliding Reaches Western Democracies, with US Decline ‘Unprecedented’”. Press Release, 2026). In drawing on totalitarian societies of the past to depict what a future society might look like after losing all vestiges of democracy, Daggermouth aims to offer a warning about the consequences of this creep toward authoritarianism.

Totalitarian regimes are a stricter form of authoritarian regimes. While authoritarianism may permit some personal freedoms to its citizens, totalitarian governments implement a strong control over their citizens’ private lives, as well as their public experiences. Propaganda that supports the controlling government is another common tool for totalitarian regimes, and dictators may implement laws that forbid dissent in any form. This may include a state-sponsored ideology that all citizens must avow, or either the prescription of a state-sponsored religion—or the forbidding of any religion at all. Totalitarian regimes often use mass surveillance to control their citizens and encourage individuals to report on one another, encouraging distrust so that individuals do not feel safe to band together to resist governmental control. Transgressing any of the laws in totalitarian regimes is met with harsh consequences.