The Authoritarian Playbook, Part 2: When “Temporary” Emergencies Never End

Citizen of Europe – Tuesday Reads

🔗 This is Part Two of our ongoing series, The Authoritarian Playbook. Read Part One: The Language of Control.

Step by step, exposing how the tactics repeat. Part One showed how language is bent until it breaks. Part Two examines another move straight out of the manual: how leaders turn “temporary” emergencies into permanent rule.

A crisis that never ends

It always starts with urgency. The Reichstag Fire in 1933 gave Hitler the excuse to suspend civil rights in Germany “just until the threat passed.” Those measures never ended. They became the legal foundation of dictatorship. The pattern hasn’t changed: emergencies are declared, liberties are suspended, and when the dust settles, the new restrictions remain in place.

From Budapest to Washington

Hungary: In March 2020, Parliament authorized ruling by decree with no fixed end date. Later legislation extended elements of those powers beyond the acute phase, weakening parliamentary checks.

Turkey: The post-coup state of emergency (2016–2018) enabled sweeping decrees; over 150,000 public employees were dismissed. Several emergency-era measures persisted through subsequent laws.

United States: The 2001 Patriot Act, introduced as an emergency response, saw key provisions renewed or adapted over time. While some parts lapsed, broader surveillance authorities remain in place.

France: After the 2015 Paris attacks, the state of emergency expanded police powers; by 2017, a number of those powers were moved into ordinary law.

Why it lingers

Governments rarely surrender tools once granted. The logic is seductive: if it was needed once, why not keep it, just in case? But that turns exceptional measures into everyday governance. Citizens adapt, opposition weakens, and the threshold for what counts as “normal” keeps dropping.

You may also like:

• Authoritarian Playbook, Part 1: The Language of Control
• Europe’s Digital Crackdown: Free Speech Isn’t Guaranteed Anymore

Disclaimer: This article is part of Citizen of Europe’s Authoritarian Playbook series. Based on historical and contemporary cases as of September 2, 2025.

Sources

• Human Rights Watch, “Hungary: Government Seeks Rule by Decree,” March 2020.
• Amnesty International, “Turkey’s State of Emergency Ends Leaving Indelible Stain,” July 2018.
• Brennan Center for Justice, “The Patriot Act, 20 Years Later.”
• Human Rights Watch, “France: New Counterterrorism Law Endangers Rights,” October 2017.
• Historical record: Reichstag Fire Decree, February 1933.