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Political Technology: The Globalisation of Political Manipulation
'Political technology' is a Russian term for the professional engineering of politics. It has turned Russian politics into theatre and propaganda, and metastasised to take over foreign policy and weaponise history. The war against Ukraine is one outcome. In the West, spin doctors and political consultants do more than influence media or run they have also helped build parallel universes of alternative political reality. Hungary has used political technology to dismantle democracy. The BJP in India has used it to consolidate unprecedented power. Different countries learn from each other. Some types of political technology have become notorious, like troll farms or data mining; but there is now a global wholesale industry selling a range of manipulation techniques, from astroturfing to fake parties to propaganda apps. This book shows that 'political technology' is about much more than online it is about whole new industries of political engineering.
300 pages, Hardcover
Published December 14, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 15, 2025
Overall an interesting book, but not without its faults. In general, I do think it achieves what it sets out to do - show us a picture of how the state of “political technology” is in different countries, and how it is “globalising”.
Thoughts:
- It is clear that the area of expertise of the author is Eastern Europe. In fact, I did struggle somewhat during the Russia and Ukraine chapters and had to read up on context to be able to understand it. This was not the case for the other chapters (even though I know barely anything about the politics of say, India).
- I LOVED the contrast between the US and Russia: how in Russia “power influences money”, while in the US “money influences power”. Both the contrasts (direction of influence, getting more vote in Russia vs repressing vote in US, etc) and the similarities (political technology and political consulting being essentially the same) were fascinating.
- The chapter on Hungary was really nice, even though I knew most of the factual information. Showing how Hungary is a “mixing ground” for US, Russian and Israeli political technology was a fascinating perspective.
- Honestly, the post-Soviet and Ukrainan chapters were really detailed, and I did not care about them that much.
- The chapter on China and India was fascinating; if anything, I would have liked it to be longer. Having their own political technology industries with different roots from the US and Russia that are just starting to export interested me much.
- The final chapter on “does political technology work?” is badly done, and does not at all answer this question. The only thing it convinced me about is that “decisionmakers believe it to work” (Russian decisionmakers probably even too much), but it was not convincing on whether it actually does or does not work.
Thoughts:
- It is clear that the area of expertise of the author is Eastern Europe. In fact, I did struggle somewhat during the Russia and Ukraine chapters and had to read up on context to be able to understand it. This was not the case for the other chapters (even though I know barely anything about the politics of say, India).
- I LOVED the contrast between the US and Russia: how in Russia “power influences money”, while in the US “money influences power”. Both the contrasts (direction of influence, getting more vote in Russia vs repressing vote in US, etc) and the similarities (political technology and political consulting being essentially the same) were fascinating.
- The chapter on Hungary was really nice, even though I knew most of the factual information. Showing how Hungary is a “mixing ground” for US, Russian and Israeli political technology was a fascinating perspective.
- Honestly, the post-Soviet and Ukrainan chapters were really detailed, and I did not care about them that much.
- The chapter on China and India was fascinating; if anything, I would have liked it to be longer. Having their own political technology industries with different roots from the US and Russia that are just starting to export interested me much.
- The final chapter on “does political technology work?” is badly done, and does not at all answer this question. The only thing it convinced me about is that “decisionmakers believe it to work” (Russian decisionmakers probably even too much), but it was not convincing on whether it actually does or does not work.
November 12, 2025
Essential reading for anyone interested in Russia, or Authoritarian politics. This theme is not written about widely. His earlier book - Virtual Politics - was waaaay ahead of its time.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews