A Populist’s Guide To: Shaping Democracy – In 7 Steps to Dictatorship

The publication “A Populist’s Guide To: Shaping Democracy” shows in seven steps how to transform a democratic system into a dictatorship. These steps are used by the “New Right”, a descriptive term for politically right-wing and far-right movements and parties whose goal is an authoritarian state. With populism and targeted disinformation, they are trying to initiate a slow process of destabilisation. Their guiding ideas have been incorporated into the design of the 100 × 70 cm guidebook, which translates the dissolution of existing systems and progressive radicalisation into the layout, typography and visual language of the individual steps. In martial images such as a raised fist and symbolically crossed tips of sharp and shiny silver blades, but also in the use of the Fraktur typeface and in calls for agitation, the corresponding insignia are clearly named and concisely staged. However, reading this 18-page guide from back to front reveals possible answers to the question of how to restore democracy and a peacefully functioning civil society.Statement by the juryThe guide with the subtitle “In 7 Steps to Dictatorship” is a creative masterpiece of the first order. With a stringent text-picture language – excellently researched and implemented in terms of content – the guidebook not only illustrates and clarifies an exciting, highly political topic, but with the ingenious idea of turning it 180 degrees for an alternative reading, it also provides the solution on how democratic and social coexistence can be restored.