Building Autocracy in the Twenty-First Century: Three Monumental Stategies.

This article examines how twenty-first-century autocracies use the built environment to enhance their legitimacy through three distinct strategies: traditional monumentality combined with modernization, populist-authoritarian architecture that defines and excludes "the real people," and innovative rebranding by appropriating subversive or countercultural ideas. It contrasts these approaches with twentieth-century dictatorships, highlighting a shift from overt repression to more subtle forms of control and image management, often termed "spin dictatorships." Case studies include Egypt's New Administrative Capital as an example of technocratic modernization, Turkey and Hungary's populist architectural projects reinforcing exclusive national identities, and Saudi Arabia's futuristic linear city, The Line, which adopts avant-garde design to project a cosmopolitan and progressive image while maintaining authoritarian control. The article underscores that while monuments can have democratic origins or effects, autocratic regimes predominantly use monumental architecture to assert prescriptive political narratives and consolidate power.